The worlds of sport and politics have collided more than ever this year and that has extended into computer simulations, with Football Manager “looking into improving” a problem with Uygur footballers. Fans of the computer game series pointed out that the game has an issue with Uygur footballers when it comes to replacing the real-life players that retire during a simulated managerial career. Football Manager’s database at the start of the game is notoriously accurate – with many professional clubs relying on it as a scouting tool – and contains 200 or so Uygur players and staff. These include Shanghai SIPG’s Mirahmetjan Muzepper, the first Uygur player to represent the Chinese national team. The problem comes when those players age out several seasons into the game and need to be replaced by newly generated or “newgen” youth players. In the case of Uygur players – of whom there are many throughout the Chinese football pyramid – the “regens” are all Han Chinese and in time there will be no Uygur players in the game. Fans of the Football Manager computer game pointed out this anomaly on the game’s online forum earlier this month following the release of its 2021 edition. ‘Business as unusual’: Football Manager a rare coronavirus success story The original forum comment was made by a user playing as Xinjiang Snow Leopard, a China League One side that has a large proportion of Uygur footballers. They complained that all of the youth players coming through at the club were Han Chinese. Football Manager’s head researcher for China responded to the forum post: “It’s a good point you raised, it’s as if Athletic Bilbao doesn’t have Basque newgens, and it’s been planned to be fixed in long term.” That was echoed by Football Manager spokesman Tom Davidson, PR manager at the game’s publisher Sports Interactive. Mirahmetjan Muzepper was substituted in in the friendly match against Qatar on September, 7th. In the friendly against Bahrain yesterday, he started and was substituted out in the 46'. Born in Kashgar, he is the 1st Uyghur player ever featuring for Chinese national football team. pic.twitter.com/etMhGp6oWz — Titan Sports Plus (@titan_plus) September 11, 2018 “It’s a complicated process to model newgen players, especially when it comes to getting a realistic mix of names, languages and nationalities to come through in the correct quantities at the correct clubs. We try to do this as best we can, based on the current demographics in football in each nation, but we are always looking to improving things.” The forum response from the China researcher indicated that the issue had been flagged in January, with Davidson saying they were away of the situation. “To some degree, yes. We added the Uygur language into the game earlier this year and ensured that the more than 200 real players/non-players of Uygur origin in the database had it assigned as their spoken language. We hadn’t, however, factored in the newgen question and we’re now looking into improving that. How China’s new-found focus on soccer affects the latest version of blockbuster game Football Manager “We make numerous changes to the way newgens are modelled each year. Wherever we see problems arise – or where those problems are brought to our attention by our players, as in this case – we do what we can to tackle them.” Football Manager famously offered various Brexit scenarios in the 2019 edition of the game, the real-life ramifications of which are only now coming into focus in the real football world, and the Chinese Super League buying frenzy of 2016 . “We work closely with our Head Researchers across the world to identify such issues and also keep an eye on news stories from around the world ourselves. However, as we said, both FM and the world are constantly changing and evolving; if issues like this are brought to our attention we always look into them. Mirahmetjan Muzepper, the new signing of Shanghai SIPG, said he and Odil Ahmedov could understand each other using their own mother languages. The only Uigher player to appear for the China national team, is likely to form a midfielder partnership with the Uzbekistan captain. pic.twitter.com/w701KdepuM — Titan Sports Plus (@titan_plus) April 16, 2020 China’s treatment of its Uygur population in the far western region of Xinjiang has become a huge global news story, even in football. Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil posted about the issue , causing a furore in China that provoked a response from the country’s foreign ministry spokesman, while Demba Ba called on footballers to speak up. Several high profile francophone players, such as Franck Ribery and Kalidou Koulibaly then shared a social media post highlighting the issue . Former CSL star Demba Ba calls on football to condemn Uygur treatment Earlier this month, France striker Antoine Griezmann cancelled his deal with Huawei , citing concerns over the treatment of Uygurs. Football Manager declined to comment on the topic but did say that they will continue in their quest to replicate the real football world. “With every release of Football Manager we’re constantly striving to create a living, breathing world where we realistically replicate football on a global level. This is perhaps an impossible task, but it’s something we’ve been working towards for more than 25 years. Griezmann ends partnership with Huawei, citing repression of Uygurs “Elements of this are always ‘work in progress’ – as the world itself is ever-changing – and the FM community often helps us identify areas where can improve our modelling of the football landscape. “This is a perfect example of how this process works; an issue is brought to our attention through our forums and we get to work on improving that area of the game.” It remains to be seen whether the issue of Uygur newgens will be fixed in FM21.