

The first release of the game included a player named "Tó Madeira", a great striker no matter where he played. On their last show, they received a letter (from Sports Interactive) and special edition copies of Championship Manager: Season 01/02 which saw Ant as a player for Newcastle with a contract of £50,000 a week with a value of £4.7m, and Dec as a player for Sunderland with a contract of £90 a week. In 2001, presenters Ant & Dec, who hosted the Saturday morning show SMTV Live, left the show. In December 2008, Eidos Interactive made the game available for free download, and included a recommendation for users to download a users-created update patch from, THE most active CM forum on the net, the website still provides regular biannual updates after transfer windows close. This edition of Championship Manager included about 100 fully playable leagues in 26 countries, and patch 3.9.67 added South Korea's K-League, its first appearance in the CM series. The community has over 13,000 accounts and counting, and "Keeps the Game Alive". The ability to change game values, commentary speed, utilize coloured attributes, change the start year and many other changes have been made. The community has provided various patches and data updates to the game and continues to do so to this day. Other new additions included the ability to send players away for surgery, player notes, player comparisons, and improved media and board interaction.

Championship Manager 01/02 implemented the new EU regulated transfer system, introduced in September 2001, and also featured a new "attribute masking" mode, whereby the player could only see information about footballers they would realistically know about (also known as a fog of war). Although never particularly expanding on the graphical side, Sports Interactive included many new features along with the usual updated database.
