FIFA Soccer Manager 97

Real-world data extracted from SM97.DAT — 92 English clubs, 1996/97 season

Overview

92Clubs

4Divisions

55,000Largest stadium (Old Trafford)

3,887Smallest stadium (Barnet)

2,500+Players in database

Clubs by Division

Club	Stadium	Capacity	Manager
Manchester United	Old Trafford	55,000	Alex Ferguson
Liverpool	Anfield	40,500	Roy Evans
Everton	Goodison Park	40,000	Joe Royle
Leeds	Elland Road	40,000	Howard Wilkinson
Aston Villa	Villa Park	39,500	Brian Little
Arsenal	Highbury	38,500	Bruce Rioch
Newcastle	St James' Park	36,518	Kevin Keegan
Sheffield Wednesday	Hillsborough	36,020	David Pleat
Tottenham	White Hart Lane	33,000	Gerry Francis
Blackburn	Ewood Park	31,800	Ray Harford
Chelsea	Stamford Bridge	31,500	Ruud Gullit P-M
Nottingham Forest	The City Ground	30,557	Frank Clark
Middlesbrough	The Cellnet Riverside Stadium	30,000	Bryan Robson P-M
West Ham	Upton Park	26,014	Harry Redknapp
Wimbledon	Selhurst Park SHARED	26,000	Joe Kinnear
Derby	Baseball Ground	25,000	Jim Smith
Coventry	Highfield Road	23,000	Ron Atkinson
Sunderland	Roker Park	22,657	Peter Reid
Leicester	Filbert Street	22,517	Martin O'Neill
Southampton	The Dell	15,000	Graeme Souness

Club	Stadium	Capacity	Manager
Manchester City	Maine Road	32,000	Alan Ball
Wolves	Molineux Ground	28,500	Mark McGhee
Birmingham	Saint Andrews	28,235	Trevor Francis
Barnsley	Oakwell Ground	27,310	Danny Wilson
Portsmouth	Fratton Road	26,452	Terry Fenwick
Crystal Palace	Selhurst Park SHARED	26,000	Dave Bassett
Stoke	Victoria Ground	25,409	Lou Macari
West Brom	The Hawthorns	25,117	Alan Buckley
Sheffield United	Bramall Lane	23,327	Howard Kendall
Port Vale	Vale Park	23,000	John Rudge
Bolton	Burnden Park	22,616	Colin Todd
Ipswich	Portman Road	22,500	George Burley
Norwich	Carrow Road	21,909	Mike Walker
Huddersfield	The Alfred McAlpine Stadium	20,000	Brian Horton
QPR	Loftus Road	19,000	Ray Wilkins P-M
Tranmere	Prenton Park	16,789	John Aldridge P-M
Swindon	County Ground	15,341	Steve McMahon
Charlton	The Valley	15,000	Alan Curbishley
Bradford	The Pulse Stadium	14,539	Chris Kamara P-M
Reading	Elm Park	14,058	Mick Gooding P-M
Oldham	Boundary Park	13,599	Graeme Sharp
Southend	Roots Hall	13,000	Ronnie Whelan P-M
Oxford	Manor Ground	9,572	Denis Smith
Grimsby	Blundell Park	8,607	Brian Laws

Club	Stadium	Capacity	Manager
Watford	Vicarage Road	22,000	Glenn Roeder
Burnley	Turf Moor	20,912	Adrian Heath
Bristol City	Ashton Gate	20,832	Joe Jordan
Notts County	Meadow Lane	20,300	Colin Murphy
Millwall	The New Den	20,146	Jimmy Nicholl P-M
Plymouth	Home Park	19,700	Neil Warnock
Stockport	Edgeley Park	16,419	David Jones
Brentford	Griffin Park	13,800	David Webb
Luton	Kenilworth Road	13,410	Lennie Lawrence
Bournemouth	Dean Court	11,880	Mel Machin
Bury	Gigg Lane	11,614	Stan Ternent
Rotherham	Millmoor Ground	11,533	Archie Gemmill
Wrexham	Racecourse Ground	11,500	Brian Flynn
Chesterfield	Recreation Ground	11,308	John Duncan
Peterborough	London Road	10,675	Barry Fry
Gillingham	Priestfield Stadium	10,422	Tony Pulis
Walsall	Bescot Stadium	10,400	Chris Nicholl
Preston	Deepdale	10,173	Gary Peters
Blackpool	Bloomfield Road	9,654	Gary Megson
Wycombe	Adams Park	9,649	Alan Smith
York	Bootham Crescent	9,534	Brian Little
Bristol Rovers	Twerton Park	8,730	Ian Holloway P-M
Shrewsbury	Gay Meadow	8,000	Fred Davies
Crewe	Gresty Road	6,000	Dario Gradi

Club	Stadium	Capacity	Manager
Cardiff	Ninian Park	21,000	Phil Neal
Orient	Brisbane Road	18,869	Pat Holland
Brighton	The Goldstone Ground	18,203	Jimmy Case
Carlisle	Brunton Park	17,300	Mervyn Day
Swansea	Vetch Field	16,550	Jan Molby P-M
Hull	Boothferry Park	15,828	Terry Dolan
Hereford	Edgar Street	13,752	Dick Homsby
Fulham	Craven Cottage	11,600	Micky Adams
Lincoln	Sincil Bank	10,898	John Beck
Mansfield	Field Mill	10,315	Andy King
Darlington	Feethams	9,984	Roy Hodgson
Cambridge	Abbey Stadium	9,667	Tommy Taylor
Scunthorpe	Glanford Park	9,200	Mick Buxton
Exeter	St James Park	8,960	Peter Fox P-M
Wigan	Springfield Park	8,666	John Deehan
Colchester	Layer Road	7,944	Steve Wignall
Doncaster	Belle Vue Ground	7,794	Sammy Chung
Northampton	Sixfields	7,673	Ian Atkins
Hartlepool	The Victoria Ground	7,229	Keith Houchen P-M
Scarborough	The McCain Stadium	6,899	Mick Wadsworth
Torquay	Plainmoor Ground	6,490	Kevin Hodge
Chester	Deva Stadium	6,000	Kevin Ratcliffe
Rochdale	Spotland	5,800	Graham Barrow
Barnet	Underhill Stadium	3,887	Ray Clemence

Stadiums

Shared Grounds

Selhurst Park is listed for two clubs in different divisions: Wimbledon (Premier League) and Crystal Palace (Division 1), both at 26,000. This reflected a real arrangement — Wimbledon left Plough Lane in 1991 and never built their own ground again, eventually relocating to become MK Dons.

Grounds That No Longer Exist (as of 2025)

Club	Ground then	Ground now
Arsenal	Highbury (38,500)	Emirates Stadium, 2006
Derby	Baseball Ground (25,000)	Pride Park, 1997 — same year as this data
Brighton	The Goldstone Ground (18,203)	Amex Stadium, 2011 — homeless for years
Sunderland	Roker Park (22,657)	Stadium of Light, 1997
Stoke	Victoria Ground (25,409)	bet365 Stadium, 1997
Southampton	The Dell (15,000)	St Mary's, 2001

Top-Rated Players

Ratings are averaged across each player's 23 individual skill attributes (0–100 scale), extracted directly from the binary game data.

Top 20 Overall

#	Player	Club	Rating
1	Roy Keane	Manchester United	69.3
2	Steve McManaman	Liverpool	68.7
3	Alan Shearer	Newcastle	68.4
4	Eric Cantona	Manchester United	68.0
5	Dennis Bergkamp	Arsenal	67.8
6	Peter Beardsley	Newcastle	67.5
7	Robbie Fowler	Liverpool	67.3
8	Steve Stone	Nottingham Forest	67.1
9	Patrik Berger	Liverpool	66.9
10	Teddy Sheringham	Tottenham	66.8
11	Ryan Giggs	Manchester United	66.7
12	John Barnes	Liverpool	66.2
13	Robert Lee	Newcastle	66.1
14	Stig-Inge Bjornbye	Liverpool	66.1
15	David Beckham	Manchester United	65.8
16	Paul Merson	Arsenal	65.7
17	David Platt	Arsenal	65.7
18	Ruud Gullit	Chelsea	65.3
19	Darren Anderton	Tottenham	64.8
20	Ian Wright	Arsenal	64.6

Best XI

P. Schmeichel

Man Utd • 63.7

G. Le Saux

Blackburn • 62.7

C. Hendry

Blackburn • 62.5

T. Adams

Arsenal • 60.4

G. Neville

Man Utd • 61.2

R. Giggs

Man Utd • 66.7

R. Keane

Man Utd • 69.3

E. Cantona

Man Utd • 68.0

S. McManaman

Liverpool • 68.7

A. Shearer

Newcastle • 68.4

R. Fowler

Liverpool • 67.3

Notable People

Player-Managers

Twelve managers in the game were also registered players at their own clubs — marked P-M in the tables above.

Ruud Gullit — Chelsea

Premier League. One of the most celebrated player-managers: a world-class player still active while leading Chelsea to their most glamorous era in decades.

Bryan Robson — Middlesbrough

Premier League. Captain Marvel still pulling on a shirt while managing a squad that included Ravanelli, Juninho and Emerson.

John Aldridge — Tranmere

Division 1. The Republic of Ireland striker-turned-manager, still banging in goals for the club he would go on to manage for years.

Jan Molby — Swansea

Division 3. The Danish Liverpool legend as player-manager in the fourth tier, listed in both the squad and the dugout.

Ian Holloway — Bristol Rovers

Division 2. Future pundit and Premier League manager, here as a player-manager in the lower leagues.

Chris Kamara — Bradford

Division 1. Long before the TV career, Kamara was a player-manager at Valley Parade.

Famous Names in Unexpected Places

Peter Shilton at Orient (Division 3) — England's most-capped goalkeeper ever (125 caps) is listed as an active player at Brisbane Road. He was 47 years old at the time.
Ray Wilkins at Orient (Division 3) — Former England captain, listed as a player at Orient while simultaneously managing QPR in Division 1.
Ray Clemence managing Barnet (Division 3) — One of England's greatest ever goalkeepers, managing the smallest club in the game (3,887 capacity).
Roy Hodgson managing Darlington (Division 3) — Future England manager (2012–16) in the fourth tier, with a 9,984-capacity ground.
Daley Thompson at Mansfield Town (Division 3) — The double Olympic decathlon champion (1980 & 1984) appears as a registered player at Field Mill.
Dario Gradi at Crewe (Division 2) — Already a Crewe institution in 1997; he would stay until 2007. One of the longest-serving managers in English football history.

International Stars

Chelsea

Ruud Gullit (NL), Gianfranco Zola (IT), Roberto Di Matteo (IT), Mark Hughes (WAL) — the most cosmopolitan squad in England at the time.

Middlesbrough

Fabrizio Ravanelli (IT), Juninho (BRA), Emerson (BRA) — all signed in one summer. A landmark moment for foreign recruitment in English football, and an enormous financial gamble for a newly-promoted club.

Arsenal

Dennis Bergkamp (NL), Patrick Vieira (FR) — the first signs of the squad Arsène Wenger would go on to build, though the data still shows Bruce Rioch as manager.

Newcastle

Alan Shearer (world-record £15m signing), Peter Beardsley, Les Ferdinand — arguably the most exciting English attack of the era, yet no title to show for it.

Curiosities

The Baseball Ground, Derby — named after an actual baseball diamond that stood there in the 1890s. Derby moved to Pride Park later in 1997, the same year as this data.
Brighton's Goldstone Ground — the club sold it under financial pressure and were left without a home ground for years, eventually ground-sharing at Gillingham (60 miles away) before the Amex was built in 2011.
Southampton's The Dell at 15,000 was by far the smallest Premier League ground — less than half the size of the next smallest (Coventry's Highfield Road, 23,000), and less than a third the size of Old Trafford.
Wimbledon at Selhurst Park — the 1988 FA Cup winners were sharing a ground with Crystal Palace in 1997, having left Plough Lane six years earlier. They never got their own ground back.
Hillsborough, Sheffield Wednesday (36,020) — still carrying its full pre-1989 capacity in the game data, despite the Hillsborough disaster eight years earlier having led to major changes in stadium safety regulations across England.
Roker Park (22,657) and Victoria Ground (25,409) — both Sunderland and Stoke moved to new stadiums in 1997, the same year as this game. Both old grounds have since been demolished.