Here’s Championship Manager 99/00 on Ubuntu with PlayOnLinux

Last Updated on May 4, 2024

As a follow up to my recent guide on installing Championship Manager 99/00 on Ubuntu, I’ve made this video demonstrating the game running.

Returning to this game has been strange. Having spent way too much time on Championship Manager 98, I bought Championship Manager 99/00 on the first day of release. Unsurprisingly for a 20-something caught up in the madness of supporting England during the 1990s, the game quickly became my favourite.

23 years later, Championship Manager 99/00 feels far more playable than the more recent Football Manager series (which evolved from CM). There are no press conferences, impossible-to-judge team talks, and minimal prima donna nonsense from players. While striving for reality in simulation games is understandable, it is important to remember that these are games. For the full realism of managing a football team, you really need to find a real life team to manage.

Championship Manager 99/00 might be full of now-retired footballers and managers, but it is fun. The lack of press conferences and team talks makes getting through a season a bit quicker. I prefer the player training system in FM05, if I’m honest, but as I still haven’t found the disc, I think I can live with the difference for now.

Performance-wise, CM99 plays perfectly well under Ubuntu 22.04 with Wine and PlayOnLinux. Phases of the game that used to take a while, such as saving and loading, and processing scores in other matches, now takes just a couple of seconds.

At the time of recording, I was 11 games into the first season, in Division 3 (now known as League 2) and managing York City. At the point of clicking Kick Off Match, the team has had a few new arrivals but isn’t firing on all cylinders, sitting in 14th place. Is it a win, a defeat, or a draw-bore?