Football Manager 2020 comes with three base skins, Default, Light and Dark, which can be selected within the in-game settings at any point during your save. What is a ‘skin'? you might be asking Well, ‘skin' is simply a name for the game's interface, how FM looks, the colours, the fonts and the graphics.
For many FM purists, the skins that come built into the game are more than enough to satisfy their needs, especially as custom made skins allow for more crash-dump errors due to not being frequently updated. However, custom made skins do transform FM into a completely new looking game and for those who perhaps don't like the simplicity of the base skins, custom made skins are a necessity.
Below we have added screenshots of the three starting skins that come with every copy of FM20, but anyone playing this game for the first time might not even realise that the option to change your FM20 interface is right there, before even needing to download any user-made skins. This year FM20 have gone with a purple theme for their default skin, the likes of which the FM community have never seen before. It is a striking skin that sets this instalment of the popular franchise apart from any previous versions, but it might not be your cup of tea. Many players prefer the dark version of the default skin as it is a bit less in your face than the purple theme and not as bright as the light version, which is important if you are playing this game for long periods at a time as many of us are.
Default skin
Dark skin
Light skin
How to Choose and Download a New Skin
Now you know what skins are you need to know where to get them from. The Football manager community is huge and has been creating skins for a number of years now and they still remain as popular as ever, so you don't have to settle for the three default skins. A quick google search for ‘FM20 skins' will produce over 1 million results, but here is a list of the most trusted and popular sites you can find all of the latest skins on…
- fmscout.com
- fminside.net
- fm-base.co.uk
- sortitoutsi.net
- df11faces.com
Choosing a new skin all comes down to your own personal preferences, so we recommend searching through the skins sections of the above-mentioned sites, taking time to look through the skins that stand out to you until you have found one or more that you want to try. You will find all sorts of styles and even multiple dark and light versions of some of the more popular skins. For those of you that don't have the patience to take that much time over a skin, here are a few examples of the most popular FM20 skins you can download for free now.
OPZ Elite 2020 v.20.6.2 + v.mini
FLUT skin dark – Version 2.2
TCS 2020 v1.5
Heffem Skin V2
Tad Twenty v.1.2.2
Downloading FM20 skins couldn't be simpler. Most of the sites that host FM skins have a very easy to read interface and once you are on the page of a particular skin you like, there will usually be a large button saying ‘Download' or ‘Download Now'. Clicking said button will either start the download automatically or take you to a specific download site e.g download from FMScout will take you to mega.nz where another download button awaits. Once you had downloaded the skin or skins you wanted to try out, they will have been saved to your computer's ‘downloads' file.
How to Install Skins on Football Manager 2020
If you are used to downloading face packs, club badges and kits then installing skins should be a fairly simple process for you, but if this is your first time adding any kind of graphical mod to FM20 then this guide will tell you everything you need to know.
Step 1 – Extracting Your File
Almost all graphics files you download for FM20 will be compact and therefore will need ‘extracting'. If you are a Windows user then you will need to download a programme such as ‘Winrar' or ‘7-Zip' before you will be able to extract your files and for those using a Mac, ‘The Unarchiver' will do the trick.
Step 2 – Selecting the Destination for Your New Skin
If this is your first time installing a skin on FM20 then you probably don't know where the skin files need to be placed, but fear not.
For Windows users simply extract your skin to…
C:\Users\\Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2020\skins\
For Mac users simply extract your skin to…
Mac OS X: /Users//Documents/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2020/skins/
Step 3 – Loading Your New Skin
Now that your skin has been extracted to the correct file you can load it up and enjoy your new look FM20 interface, simply…
- Start Football Manager 2020.
- From the start screen click ‘Preferences'.
- Alternatively, if you are in-game you can navigate to preferences by clicking the ‘FM' button.
- In Preferences find the Interface section and select your skin from the drop-down menu.
- Press confirm and wait for the new skin to load up and then you're ready to go.
Thankfully, it is fairly simple to install skins in FM20 compared to previous versions of the game when you had to check certain options were clicked and even had to clear the cache. However, if you are still struggling then there are video guides to install skins online and if you are playing a previous version of the game then you will need to find another guide as there are a few extra steps you will need to take before your new skin will work.
Now you have been introduced to some of the most popular skins for FM20 and understand how to download and install them, you can change how your FM20 interface looks any time you fancy a change. However, if you do find yourself wanting to return to the original FM20 skins they will always be there and if you want to delete the new skins from your computer simply navigate to the skins folder, right-click and select delete, it's that simple.
