Director of Football

1999 retro games PC games

German football manager that was published at turning point of the genre - when matches were shown in continuous animated form, rather than classic text and simple graphics.

Director of Football was German title published in late 1990s, when games of the genre were in the middle of switching from classic text and simple graphics form of match presentation to continuous animated form. It was not first game to introduce full match preview in form of animation (Universal Soccer Manager had similar solutions year or two earlier), but comparing to other titles Director of Football was the ’middle of the road’ title that used modern graphics and quite few player details, which was typical to older games.

Director of Football offered chance to play in one of 8 countries (Germany, England, France, Italy, Spain, Scotland, Holland and Portugal) and, apart from typical options, offered what was characteristic for German titles, stadium improvements, bank options, sponsorship deals, insurance aspects, etc.

While the game was quite impressive (comparing the range of options and countries available to competition of the era), at the same time the interface was rather messy, a lot of the functions were hidden behind small icons that did not have a proper description, not to mention some of them were not properly explained. It was a game perhaps not on the level of Anstoss, or Championship Manager, when it comes to simulation, but had enough options to keep player occupied for long hours.

Our rating
★★★★☆

Video
★★★★☆

Audio
★★☆☆☆

Playability
★★★☆☆