It's been 10 years since ManagerZone made its debut. What started as a small project by a few sports and computer game enthusiasts in Sweden has become a constantly growing, multi-sport game enjoyed by a thriving global community of Managers.
The very first newsletter was published on November 29th 2001. It was in Swedish and contained a brief report about ManagerZone. We wrote about the following things: Growth is bigger than expected, we are working on youth training and our hope is to release it live next week and we are working on Cups and Friendly leagues. At that point we had over 14,000 members. This was a lot more than we expected, the forum servers struggled when there were more than 300 people logged in!
Below you will see a journal documenting the first 10 years in ManagerZone.
Journal
2001
ManagerZone launches!
Crew posted the first news on the website. The message was simple: “Today we have added this little news function. We aim to give the users more visible information about new updates in the game.”
2002
The first ManagerZone Cup was played and it was a massive success. Majorna BK and Listerby IK made it to the final, and the Manager of the winning team (Listerby IK) got a mobile phone for his effort.
Crew started testing MZ Hockey. Over 1,000 Managers volunteered to test the new game.
ManagerZone reached 50,000 members and for the first time, had over 1,000 members logged in at the same time.
Crew announced that a new Sim was on its way. Before then everything was based on match referral, but the new Sim would let Managers watch matches live in their web browsers! This was ground breaking because it offered a much better view of matches. This made tactics more important. As always the changes were met with excitement from some and suspicion from others :)
ManagerZone created the largest football cup in the world with over 60,000 teams.
We welcomed the United States and England to ManagerZone. The game became international, and was now translated into English.
As ManagerZone moved beyond its Swedish borders, the game needed international Game Assistants. Joacim “xtream” Collander became the 1st international game assistant.
We went on to welcome to the ManagerZone family: France, Italy, Spain,Germany, Denmark and Finland
The 1st issue of The Zone was released in English.
2003
International transfers began. Before this day it was only possible to make a transfer with a club from your home country.
Another new Sim was released, this included “the analyzer” and it was a great milestone for ManagerZone. At the same time a few more features was released including in-game penalty shots, match suspensions and injuries.
The first version of live matches was released, making it possible to see players beat their opponents on the field with the analyzer tool.
For the 1st time in ManagerZone history, the top 2 teams in the rankings were both non-Swedish. Jonathan Hooper and his Eggchasers FC became the proud owner of the top spot and Jon Anders Oesterud from Norway claimed 2nd place.
Mkillah from Poland won the very first Manager of the Season award.
ManagerZone Hockey was launched!
2004
An analyzer was released for ManagerZone hockey, meaning that both hockey and football matched could be watched with the analyzer tool.
The first World Cup in ManagerZone began.
Sweden won the first World Cup title in football.
The 3D Sim was launched.
The first World Cup of hockey began.
2005
The first global MZ meeting took place in Copenhagen. Managers from Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland were in attendance.
Another World Cup of football began. 47 National Teams participated, and was won by Argentina.
2006
Poland became world champions in hockey, beating Brazil in the final by a score of 5-2.
A new Football Sim was released.
Greece became World Champions in football by defeating Poland 2-1.
We welcomed China to ManagerZone Hockey.
An all-star team was introduced. Every Manager could challenge this squad that included players like Ronaldinho, Henry Rooney and Zlatan.
2007
A new 3D Sim was released. It was a completely new system with a lot of new features.
The 3D Sim was opened to all Managers. Previously it had been exclusive for Club Members.
Portugal became the new World Cup champion in football.
Finland became the U18 World Cup champion in hockey. Finland claimed the title by beating Brazil 4-1 in the final.
2008
Sweden won the World Cup in football.
Australian team Glasston won the Champions Cup by defeating Finland’s Piparsidan. Australian Manager rookerman led his country to their first victory in this prestigious tournament.
ManagerZone arranged the biggest cup yet, the "MZ Anniversery Cup" with 144,000 participants
It was now possible to customize your favorite players using digital items
2009
Italy became the new European U21 Champions. The Netherlands was the runner-up and Latvia took 3rd place.
ManagerZone joined Facebook. On the 27th of July ManagerZone launched its fan page.
The speed on the website increases because of our new servers
2010
UXX competitions, the Official U18, U23 and the Prized U21 Cups.
The neat Uxx/Oxx filter in the fixtures page.
Availability page
Friendly Leagues 2 and Prized Friendly Leagues.
Uxx/Oxx Friendly Leagues.
Supporters, Club Members and Club Members Gold, with additional benefits.
Many improvements to the forum.
A new English language FAQ/Manual; translations will soon to begin for the rest of our MZ languages.
No injury Cup.
Local free national event Cups.
A new Tactics editor was introduced with more options and new and improved features.
A new tutorial for beginners was released.
Youth and senior cups was introduced. The different types were U18, U21, U23 and U24
2011
The tactical rule system was introduced, allowing Managers to make tactical changes during the match
Hockey 3D became available for Macs, as well as Windows and UNIX (Ubuntu) PCs.
MZ Hockey celebrates its 30th season by launching a special free 30th Anniversary Cup.
Estonia became World Champions in Football
The first version of the new game mode "Head 2 Head" was introduced
More improvements to the forum, including sticky threads
2011 isn't finished and we have more updates to come!
2001 - 2011
As of today 506,192,125 football matches and 70,675,632 hockey matches have been played in ManagerZone. The game is played in 99 different countries, 11,420 news articles have been published. Not bad for a game that started as a small project for a few football enthusiasts!
We are planning lot's of fun stuff for the 10th anniversary, so make sure to keep up with the news so you don’t miss anything!
