'Football Manager 2008' date confirmed

Soccer fans eager to buy the next instalment of Sports Interactive's successful Football Manager game will find it on shelves from October 19, publisher Sega has confirmed.

Football Manager 2008, which will include more than 100 new features following feedback from fans of the previous release, will offer over 5,000 playable teams from over 50 countries to players of the game.

Sports Interactive, the original developers of the immensely popular Championship Manager series, unveiled a playable PC demo of the game on September 30. It went on to became one of the fastest demo downloads ever, after more than 250,000 people snapped it up in under 48 hours.