PC Ally McCoist's Director of Football

Harvinaisuus keräilijöille tai genren harrastajille!

Retro Review: I’m taking you to the 2001/2002 season – a time when Liverpool were challenging Arsenal for the title, and an English midfielder was firing Real Madrid towards continental glory. It was also a time when Championship Manager still had plenty of competition to contend with, even if some of their early rivals had fallen by the wayside.

So what happened when German developers joined forces with a Scottish footballing legend to try and challenge England’s top dogs? Let’s take a closer look at Ally McCoist’s Director of Football.

BACKGROUND

Up until around the mid-2000s, almost every football management game worth its salt was made in either the United Kingdom or Germany. You can thank the Germans for this one.

Endorsed by a popular German football magazine, kicker FUSSBALLmanager was first released in late 1999 and created by Heart-Line Software (later known as Greencode). A sequel was released the following year, but that’s not really relevant to this title.

Empire Interactive published the original game in the UK two years later with updated squads and a new name – Director of Football. That was a peculiar choice of name, seeing as the DoF or ‘sporting director’ role was common at top European clubs, but not so much on these shores until over a decade later.

And who better to put their name to this football management game than… er, Ally McCoist? Back in 2001, the newly-retired former Rangers and Scotland striker had never even tried his hand at management. Indeed, McCoist was better-known as a jovial team captain on BBC quiz show “A Question of Sport”.

The Guardian: "McCoist may regret his name appearing on a game which appears to offer the opportunity for wannabe directors of football to avoid paying tax. At the end of each in-game season your club is presented with a tax bill, but you can decide to risk further repercussions by only paying a fraction of the money owed. The screen reads: 'You can reduce the amount of tax by 50%, at the risk of being caught and facing a large fine. Do you wish to adopt this tax evasion?"