FM27 COMEBACK SKIN  v1.7.1
FM24's sidebar is back, in black and gold.
Free from FM Extra Time: https://fmextratime.com/downloads/comeback-skin/
==============================================================================


NEW IN v1.7.1
-------------
- Messages in the sidebar now opens your messages the way FM's own Messages
  tab does, with the newest unread message (or the one you last read) shown
  beside the list. Before, it kept your last message highlighted with an
  empty pane beside it until you clicked another one (thanks Danny and Dan).

Already on v1.4 or later? Run this Install.bat: it replaces the changed
files and runs the club pictures setup again.

NEW IN v1.7
-----------
- FM24's Home. The Portal Overview is laid out like FM24's Home again, with
  the inbox left on Messages where it belongs:
  - Your next match across the top: both crests, kick-off, competition,
    date, stadium, weather and referee, on a grass background.
  - Your fixtures, Previous Meetings and the Next Opposition Report next
    to it, and the league table down the left (room for 24 teams).
  - Player Stats: your club's top scorer, highest average rating, most
    assists, most Player of the Match awards and most dribbles per match,
    each with his face.
  - Team Stats: your league and position, then goals per shot, goals
    conceded, clean sheets, shots on target, passes, tackles and cards,
    each with a bar.
  - The match preview (both teams' news, form and the fans' prediction),
    Finances, Medical Centre, Promises, Recruitment Budgets and Scouting
    Budget.
  - Transfer Activity: your current deals, each with the club's crest and
    name and the fee.
  - Smaller screens get their own Home with the table, Player Stats, Team
    Stats, the match preview, budgets and finances.
- FM24's player profile. A player's Overview is back to FM24's layout:
  - The top row: a player card (his face and his shirt in the club's home
    kit, with his name and number), the club crest and nation flag with
    their names under them, then his age, caps, youth caps, wage and
    contract, and squad status. Next to that his value and transfer status,
    sharpness and condition, morale and happiness, and his current and
    potential ability stars. Then Personal Information (reputation,
    personality, height, media description, languages and the Actions
    menu) and Career Stats (his last five seasons, with assists and
    average rating).
  - Under it: Positional Abilities (pitch, roles and Compare), Attributes,
    Coach Report (recommendation, FM24's pros and cons icons, traits and
    bans), Performance per 90, then Form, Season Stats, Playing Time and
    Dynamics. FM24's boots show how strong each foot is.
  - Each heading opens FM's full page for it, as FM's own tiles do.
  - This layout is for screens of 1920x1080 and bigger (FM's large
    layout). On smaller screens FM switches to its own compact profile,
    which stays as FM made it.
- FM24's top bar: the back and forward arrows and your club crest on a glow
  in your club's colour, one long box with the screen's name in it (click
  it to search), FM's game menu behind the FM logo, and the date with your
  next match and how many days away it is. FM27's six club menus leave the
  top bar: every page they list is in the tabs under the bar, and the
  sidebar reaches every section. National team and unemployed managers
  keep FM's menus.
- Unread messages: a red count on Messages in the sidebar, as in FM24, with
  the sidebar open or collapsed.
- Staff attributes are numbers again (1 to 20), as in FM26, not words: on
  staff profiles and their pop-ups, My Profile, the staff tables, and Staff
  Search (Pick Attributes and the search criteria).
  Table views you saved yourself keep FM's word columns: swap the
  attribute columns again to see numbers.
- FM24's player status flags (Inj, Wnt, Lst, Unh and so on) in the squad
  tables, with FM24's own pictures and colours. A player with more than one
  flag? Hover to open them all; they take clicks now too.
- Youth intake day as scouting files: the youth candidates show as closed
  files, in a shuffled order. Hover over a file to open it: FM's grade,
  his position, face, nation, personality, stars and Offer Contract.
  "Open all but Elite" opens the rest and leaves the Elite prospects for
  you to open. (At 1280x800 FM shows its own compact list instead.)
- The Club Profile's stadium photo is no longer covered: the stadium's
  name, capacity, surface, condition, pitch size and year built sit in a
  strip under it.
- The sidebar works when you are out of a job: Home, Messages, Calendar,
  News, Competitions, Managerial Vacancies, My Profile and Scouting.

Fixed:
- Before a match, a player's profile and the other pre-match screens use
  the whole screen instead of leaving a gap for a sidebar that is not there
  (thanks Ben).
- A player's value fits its box at bigger text sizes, and long labels such
  as Media Description no longer run into their value (thanks Rippøn, Axel
  and Rebo).
- If you had rearranged FM's Home or player profile before, those saved
  layouts no longer replace the skin's (thanks Rippøn).
- Out of a job, the page title no longer sits on top of FM's PORTAL menu
  (thanks Camo).

Already on v1.4 or later, or the v1.7 test? Run this Install.bat: it
replaces the changed files and runs the club pictures setup again.

NEW IN v1.6.3
-------------
- Trophies stay in the trophy cabinet. FM27 has only one picture per
  competition, so with the Trophies Pack installed FM showed each trophy
  wherever it shows that competition's logo (title bars, Club Vision,
  fixtures and so on). The trophy cabinet and the Club Profile's Honours
  cards now have a picture slot of their own: the club pictures setup
  moves the pack's trophies into it, so they show trophies and FM's
  competition logos are back everywhere else. A competition with no trophy
  shows its logo there instead.
  Thanks beni_93 and CD.
- The News Round-up message (Portal, Messages) fits the message pane at
  every screen size. It was wider than the pane below an ultrawide, such as
  1920x1080, so its stories were cut off at both sides (thanks
  ChrisHarold94).
Already on v1.6 to v1.6.2? Run this Install.bat: it replaces the changed
files and runs the club pictures setup, which moves the trophies.
Updated or unzipped the Trophies Pack again later? Run
"Set up club pictures.bat" again.


NEW IN v1.6.2
-------------
The same skin as v1.6 and v1.6.1. The club pictures setup now sorts out
packs that were moved into its own "FM Extra Time stadiums" and
"FM Extra Time cities" folders: it moves them back out into a folder of
their own and finds them there. Those two folders belong to the setup, so
put each pack in your graphics folder as its own folder, as it comes out
of the zip. Thanks Ole.
Already on v1.6 or v1.6.1? Run this Install.bat: it keeps the skin as it is
and runs the new setup. Or just run "Set up club pictures.bat" in the
"Club pictures setup" folder.


NEW IN v1.6.1
-------------
The same skin as v1.6, with a better club pictures setup (the part that
finds your stadium and city photo packs):
- It finds FM27's user folder when you have moved it to another drive
  (Steam's --user_data_location launch option), and says which graphics
  folder it reads.
- Found no packs? It asks for the graphics folder your packs are in, and
  remembers it for next time.
- It still finds a pack's photos when its folders were moved around after
  unzipping.
- It explains what to do when Windows stops it writing to your graphics
  folder (Controlled folder access).
Thanks AlexMidzy, Kalkov, BCHEETHAM and Craig.
Already on v1.6? Run this Install.bat: it keeps the skin as it is and runs
the new setup. Or just run "Set up club pictures.bat" in the
"Club pictures setup" folder.


NEW IN v1.6
-----------
- FM24's Club Profile: Club > Club Profile (and any other club's Overview)
  is back to FM24's three columns. Club info, facility stars and key people
  on the left. Kits, honours, and Legends and Icons / Rivalries / Finance
  tabs in the middle. The stadium with a photo, the club's background with
  a city photo, and the transfer policy on the right.
- FM24's stars: star ratings are FM24's gold stars again, wherever FM shows
  them (ability and potential, staff, facilities).
- A trophy cabinet: Club History > Honours now shows every competition the
  club has won as a trophy on a lit shelf, with a brass plaque giving its
  name and how many times they won it. The biggest competitions come first.
  It works for any club and for national teams.
  Made for the free sortitoutsi Trophies Megapack. Without it, each
  competition's logo stands on the shelf instead of its trophy.
- Stadium and city photos on the Club Profile, from any stadium and city
  photo packs in your graphics folder (the free sortitoutsi Stadium
  Backgrounds and Team City Backgrounds packs, FM Scout's stadium packs and
  so on). Install.bat sets them up for you (see THE CLUB PICTURES SETUP).

Fixed:
- World Knowledge no longer shows the screen behind it when the sidebar is
  collapsed (thanks Papalo).
- The yellow card on the Tactics player cards sits at the top right of the
  photo instead of on the player's face (thanks Wiktor Janic).
- News Round-up messages use the full width on wide screens instead of a
  third of it (thanks Erik Sivertsen).


WHAT IT DOES
------------
- Brings back an FM24-style sidebar down the left of the screen.
  One click takes you straight to each screen, no dropdowns:

    Home, Messages
    Squad, Squad Planner, Dynamics, Tactics, Data Hub, Staff, Training, Medical Centre
    Schedule (opens the fixture list), Competitions
    Scouting (opens the Player Database), Transfers
    Club Info, Club Vision, Finances, Youth Setup

- Collapse to icons: click Collapse at the bottom of the sidebar and it
  shrinks to just the icons, with every page widening into the space. Click
  the arrow at the bottom to bring the names back. The sidebar starts with
  names each time you launch FM.
- FM24's Club Profile, FM24's stars and a trophy cabinet (see above).
- FM24's Staff screen: Club > Staff > Overview shows all three departments
  side by side again, each with its roles and board feedback, its staff
  list, and how it compares with the rest of the league.
- World Knowledge, FM24 style: Recruitment > Scouting > World Knowledge opens
  a full page with your club's region and nation knowledge next to a big
  world map coloured by how well you know each country. Every scout's
  profile shows the same map on its Scouting tab.
- FM24-style headings: bold headings (Archivo), and link headings such as
  NEWS and LEAGUE TABLE in capitals, as in FM24. Body text is in FM's own
  font, so Text Scaling in FM's Preferences makes it bigger or smaller.
- FM24's top bar: arrows and club crest on a glow in your club's colour,
  one long box with the screen's name (click it to search), the FM logo for
  FM's game menu and the date with your next match. Every page of FM27's
  six club menus is
  in the tabs under the bar, and the sidebar reaches every section.
- FM24's Home: your next match, fixtures, league table, your club's Player
  Stats and Team Stats, the match preview, finances and your current
  deals, with the inbox left on Messages (see NEW IN v1.7).
- FM24's player profile, an unread count on Messages, staff attributes as
  numbers, FM24's status flags and youth intake scouting files (see NEW IN
  v1.7).
- Player faces, FM24 style: each player's face sits next to his shirt on the
  Tactics screen (every view), in-match Tactics, the match formation boxes for
  both teams, the squad strip along the bottom of the match screen, the
  dugout's substitution cards and the team talk list.
- Black and gold look: a dark sidebar, charcoal panels, gold highlights, gold
  tile titles and a gold Continue button, with a glow in your club's
  colours behind the crest in the top bar.
- Takes away the big competition wallpaper behind every screen, for a clean,
  flat background.
- A black loading screen, and a start screen to match: plain dark tiles with
  gold icons, no Video Guides banner, and the FM Extra Time badge.
- Fits any screen: pages are drawn a little smaller next to the sidebar, so
  they fit on 1080p, 1440p and 16:10 screens as well as ultrawides, and the
  sidebar fits short screens like the Steam Deck.
- Matches use the whole screen: FM hides the sidebar during a match, so the
  match screen, in-match Tactics, the team talk, half-time and full-time go
  back to full width and full size.


BEFORE YOU START
----------------
- This download is for Windows. Made and tested on the Steam version of
  FM27, and players use it on the Steam Deck too. Epic should work the
  same way. Xbox app / PC Game Pass has its own versions of two files:
  Install.bat spots that by itself and uses the ones in
  "Skin files\Game Pass".
- Playing on a Mac? Get the Mac version from our site (same page).
- This version is for FM27 after its 2 November 2026 update (still the free
  preview). When FM27 updates again (the full release is on 10 November
  2026), Steam may replace these files and switch the skin off. Grab the
  updated skin from our site. If anything looks odd after an FM update,
  verify the game files in Steam first (see below).
- Install.bat checks your game version first. If it does not match, it
  changes nothing and tells you which file is different.
- Has FM27 installed its 2 November update yet? If not, Install.bat says
  so and changes nothing. Start FM27 once so Steam updates it, quit it,
  then run Install.bat.


OPTIONAL: PHOTO PACKS
---------------------
Put each pack in your FM27 graphics folder as it comes
(Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 27\graphics). Any stadium
or city photo pack works, renamed or not. These are free from
sortitoutsi.net:
- Trophies Pack: the trophies in the trophy cabinet. The club pictures
  setup keeps them in the cabinet, so FM's competition logos stay logos
  everywhere else.
  https://sortitoutsi.net/graphics/style/32/trophies-megapack
- Stadium Backgrounds Pack (the stadium photo on the Club Profile) and Team
  City Backgrounds Pack (the city photo), two downloads on this page:
  https://sortitoutsi.net/graphics/style/17/google-earth-stadium-backgrounds
  (sortitoutsi's pages say FM24/FM26: they work with the skin in FM27.)
Add the stadium and city packs before you run Install.bat, or run the club
pictures setup again after adding them (see below).
Trophy cabinet showing logos, not trophies? Keep only one trophy pack: if
you had an older one, delete your old trophies folder and extract the
pack again. FM27 skips any picture whose file name is in the graphics
folder twice.


INSTALL (THE EASY WAY)
----------------------
1. Close Football Manager 27 completely.
2. Right-click the zip you downloaded and choose "Extract All".
   (Do not run anything from inside the zip.)
3. Open the extracted folder and double-click Install.bat.
   If Windows says "Windows protected your PC", click More info, then Run anyway.
4. It finds FM27 by itself. If it cannot, it asks you to drag your
   "Football Manager 27" folder into the window.
5. At the end it sets up the club pictures (see below). Then start FM27.

Install.bat saves FM's original files in an "Original files backup" folder
next to it, so keep this folder if you might want to go back.

Already using an earlier version (or the v1.7 test)? Just run this
Install.bat. It updates the skin in place from v1.4 onwards. Still on v1.0
to v1.3.1? Verify the game files in Steam first (see below), then run
Install.bat.


THE CLUB PICTURES SETUP
-----------------------
Install.bat runs it for you at the end, so normally there is nothing to do.
It is needed even if you have none of the packs: without it, the stadium
and city boxes on the Club Profile show the club's kit, very big. If
Install.bat says it did not finish, or you add or update a pack later, open
the "Club pictures setup" folder and double-click "Set up club pictures.bat"
(with FM closed).

- It finds every stadium and city photo pack in your graphics folder (it
  reads each pack's own config.xml, so the folder names don't matter),
  lists them, and gives every club its photo. A stadium's outside view is
  used when there is one, otherwise an inside view. Clubs without a photo
  (or everyone, if you have no packs) get a plain box.
- It reads the graphics folder FM27 uses and tells you which one: the
  usual one in Documents, or the one FM27's user folder was moved to with
  Steam's --user_data_location launch option. If it finds no packs there,
  it asks: paste the graphics folder your packs are in (or drag it onto the
  window) and press Enter. It remembers that folder for next time (delete
  "graphics folder.txt" in the "Club pictures setup" folder to forget it).
- Unzip each pack into the graphics folder as it comes. If a pack's photos
  were moved out of its "images" folder, the setup still finds them by
  their file names.
- "Windows would not let the setup write"? That is Windows Security's
  Controlled folder access (or an antivirus) guarding Documents. Switch it
  off, run "Set up club pictures.bat" again, then switch it back on.
- It makes two folders in your graphics folder, "FM Extra Time stadiums"
  and "FM Extra Time cities" (early test builds called them "fmet
  stadiums" and "fmet cities"; it renames those). Leave them there: the
  Club Profile needs them. The photos in them are links to the packs' own
  files, so they take no extra space, and the packs themselves are not
  changed. Don't put packs or photos in these two folders: if you did,
  the setup moves them out into a folder of their own and uses them.
- Trophies: it moves every trophy pack's trophies into the trophy
  cabinet's own slot, so they show in the cabinet and on the Club
  Profile's Honours cards, and FM's competition logos stay everywhere
  else. It changes one line per trophy in the pack's config.xml and keeps
  the pack's own config.xml next to it as config.xml.fmet-original
  (Restore.bat puts it back). Updated or unzipped the trophy pack again?
  Run the setup again.
- It is quick without the packs and can take a minute with them. The
  first time FM starts after it can take a little longer while FM reads
  the new pictures.


INSTALL (BY HAND)
-----------------
1. Close Football Manager 27 completely.
2. Find FM27's game files:
     Steam:  right-click Football Manager 27 in your Library, Manage,
             Browse local files. Then open:
             fm_Data\StreamingAssets\aa\StandaloneWindows64
     Epic:   ...\Epic Games\Football Manager 27\fm_Data\StreamingAssets\aa\StandaloneWindows64
     Xbox:   ...\XboxGames\Football Manager 27\Content\fm_Data\StreamingAssets\aa\StandaloneWindows64
3. Copy these 9 files from that folder somewhere safe first (your backup):
     ui-globalnavigation_assets_all.bundle
     ui-panelids_assets_all.bundle
     ui-styles_assets_common.bundle
     ui-styles_assets_default.bundle
     ui-tableviews_assets_all.bundle
     ui-tileslayouts_assets_all.bundle
     ui-visualtreeassets_assets_gameworldvisualtreeassetpreload.bundle
     ui-visualtreeassets_assets_globalvisualtreeassetpreload.bundle
     ui-visualtreeassets_assets_matchvisualtreeassetpreload.bundle
4. Copy the 9 files from this download's "Skin files" folder into the game
   folder and choose "Replace the files in the destination".
   Xbox app / PC Game Pass: then also copy the 2 files from
   "Skin files\Game Pass" over the ones you just copied.
5. Open the "Club pictures setup" folder and double-click
   "Set up club pictures.bat" (see above).


GOING BACK TO FM'S NORMAL LOOK
------------------------------
- Double-click the Restore.bat in this folder, or
- Steam: right-click Football Manager 27, Properties, Installed Files,
  Verify integrity of game files. (Epic: Manage, Verify. Xbox app: Manage,
  Files, Verify and repair.) This only replaces the changed files. Your
  saves are not touched.
- The "FM Extra Time stadiums" and "FM Extra Time cities" folders do
  nothing without the skin. Delete them from your graphics folder if you
  like.
- Restore.bat also puts your trophy pack's own config.xml back, so FM shows
  the trophies as before. Verifying in Steam instead? Then in your trophy
  pack's folder delete config.xml and rename config.xml.fmet-original to
  config.xml (or unzip the pack again).


GOOD TO KNOW
------------
- Data Hub looks frozen the first time? FM shows a one-off tutorial popup
  there, and on some PCs it does not appear, which blocks every click. This
  happens without the skin too. Fix: FM menu, Preferences, reset tutorials,
  then open Data Hub and click Understood.
- The faces are whatever pictures FM has for each player, so they come from
  your facepack if you use one. Cut-out facepacks (no background) look the
  most like FM24. Players without a picture show FM's own silhouette.
- Your own club's name in league tables stays orange. FM sets that colour in
  its code, so a skin cannot change it.
- On match days the Continue button shows the competition's own artwork
  (EFL, Champions League and so on), as FM does normally.
- Something look wrong at your screen size? Tell us on Discord with a
  screenshot.


HELP AND SUPPORT
----------------
Discord:   https://fmextratime.com/discord
Website:   https://fmextratime.com
Like it?   Everything we make is free. A coffee keeps it that way:
           https://ko-fi.com/fmextratime


THE SMALL PRINT
---------------
The Comeback skin is free and made by fans. FM Extra Time is not affiliated
with Sports Interactive or SEGA. Football Manager is their trademark. The
sortitoutsi packs are made by the sortitoutsi community and are not part of
this download. Please share the link to our page rather than re-uploading
the files, so everyone gets the newest version.

The skin uses the Archivo font by the Archivo Project Authors
(Omnibus-Type), under the SIL Open Font License 1.1. See
"Font licence (Archivo).txt".

v1.7.1, 6 November 2026. Messages in the sidebar shows your message beside
      the list instead of an empty pane.
v1.7, 6 November 2026. FM24's Home, player profile and top bar (with
      your next match), an unread count on Messages, staff attributes as
      numbers, FM24's status flags, youth intake scouting files, the
      stadium photo no longer covered and the sidebar when out of a job.
v1.6.3, 5 November 2026. Trophies stay in the trophy cabinet and the
      competition logos are back everywhere else. The News Round-up
      message fits the message pane at every screen size.
v1.6.2, 4 November 2026. The skin is the same as v1.6. The club pictures
      setup moves packs back out of its own two folders when they were
      put in there.
v1.6.1, 4 November 2026. The skin is the same as v1.6. The club pictures
      setup finds a moved FM27 folder, asks for the graphics folder when it
      finds no packs, copes with rearranged packs, and explains when
      Windows blocks it.
v1.6, 3 November 2026. FM24's Club Profile with stadium and city photos
      (from any stadium or city photo pack, set up by Install.bat), FM24's
      gold stars, and a trophy cabinet in Club History > Honours. Fixed:
      World Knowledge with the sidebar collapsed, the yellow card on the
      Tactics player cards, and the News Round-up width on wide screens.
v1.5.1, 2 November 2026. Install.bat only, the skin itself is the same as
      v1.5. It now waits for FM27's 2 November update, works on the Xbox
      app / PC Game Pass version of FM27, and says which file does not
      match when it stops.
v1.5, 2 November 2026. FM24's Staff screen, World Knowledge as a full page
      with a world map, Text Scaling works, two-digit shirt numbers on one
      line, and the match screen's bottom tiles fill wide screens.
v1.4.2, 2 November 2026. Works with FM27's 2 November update.
v1.4.1, 2 November 2026. Chinese text fixed, Home's middle block on big
      screens.
v1.4, 1 November 2026. Collapse button, FM24-style font and headings.
v1.3.1, 1 November 2026. Match screen and tactics popup fixes.
v1.3, 1 November 2026. Player faces, FM24 style.
v1.2, 31 October 2026. FM's own six menus back in the top bar.
v1.1.3, 1.1.2, 1.1.1, 1.1, 31 October 2026. Screen fit and match fixes,
      black loading screen and start screen.
v1.0, 31 October 2026. First release.
