Sad news for the fans of football management games – Championship Manager Online, the game launched by Eidos back in 2005 will close its doors and go offline this year, by the end of April. The main reason stated by the publishers for the closure of the online football management game is the lack of players.

“The game, the brand, the internet domain and the subscriptions are all owned by Eidos and the decision to cease the service is entirely theirs to make. The decision was made unilaterally by them, and we are not at liberty to comment on any reasoning,” wrote the Swedish developer Jadestone.

“We – at Jadestone – cannot talk about the decision to close the game, due to contractual obligations. We will not answer or comment any such questions,” they add.

However, a forum post clearly states: “”It just wasn’t enough to fit a strategic plan somewhere.” Unfortunately, we might add.

Even though Championship Manager Online is not successful according to the developers, there’s a Facebook group that tries to convince Eidos keep Championship Manager Online open for the fans. However, with just 284 fans at the moment of writing, the group/petition doesn’t seem to have too much power. Maybe all the CM Online fans should join and hope for the best? There’s just a couple of months left until April 30 when the game is expected to be taken off and forever closed.