
Here is a quick tutorial on how to install custom Football Manager skins or how to change the default fm skins from the game preferences.
If you’re like me, you enjoy playing the game with base Football Manager skins because of its simplicity compared to custom-made fm skins that come packed with a lot of custom-made panels.
Not only that I enjoy the default skins more, but there is a smaller chance of getting a crash-dump error while using default skins.
Custom made skins are great, and they do change your game’s appearance, which can be refreshing from time to time.
But they are not frequently updated, nor do they have the user feedback on GUI issues ( graphics user interface ) like the default ones do.
Hence, this is why you might encounter certain errors while you play the game.
So basically, to lower the possibility of crash-dump errors, stick to the default Football Manager skins.
But if you’re eager to learn how to install custom Football Manager skins and want to fresh up the looks of your game, then read on.
Changing the Base Football Manager skin
Football Manager 2018 comes with three base skins from which you can choose; the Football Manager default skin, and also in white and dark versions.
To change the Football Manager base skin, navigate to ‘Preferences’. You can access them either via home screen or through the FM drop-down menu (

From ‘Preferences’, navigate to ‘Interface’ window and choose one of the three base Football Manager skins.

If you’re like me and spend hours playing Football Manager and staring at your screen, do go with the ‘Dark’ skin because it’s much easier on the eyes than the other two, especially at night, we need to relax our eyes as much as possible. Learn more about the computer vision syndrome and protect your eyesight.
After you’ve chosen which skin works best for you, hit the ‘Confirm’ button and wait for the necessary files and graphics for your skin load, this can take for a few moments so be patient.
But due to limited options that come with the base skins, lots of you install custom skins to your game.
How to install custom Football Manager skin
Luckily for all of you who want a brand new fm skin, the Football Manager community offers a large number of incredible custom-made skins available to download.
The following steps will work for Football Manager 2018, but also for the previous versions as well.
Step 1 - Download from the internet the fm skin that matches your current version of the game.
Skins for FM 2018 will only work with FM 2018. You can’t add the skin from FM17 and expect it to work on FM18 or any other version of Football Manager.
Step 2 - Extract the folder with ‘Winrar’ ( if you’re on Windows operating system ) or ‘The Unarchiver’ ( for Mac user ).
To extract, right-click on file and hit ‘

Once the software is finished extracting the file, a skin folder will appear in this location.
Step 3 - Right-click on the folder and hit ‘Cut’ and then ‘Paste’ in the following location:
- Windows users paste the folder to;
C:\Users\\Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 20xx\skins\
- Mac users paste the folder to;
Mac OS X: /Users//Documents/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 20xx/skins/
The 20xx is the year of the Football Manager you want to add the skin, as mentioned, they must be compatible. For example; 2016, 2017, 2018.
Step 4 - Navigate to ‘Preferences - Interface’ to set the in-game settings correctly:

Be sure to first clear graphics cache, by hitting the ‘Clear cache’ button.
Also be sure to enable the ‘Reload skin when confirming changes in Preferences’ is turned on.
After that, pick the skin you want and hit ‘Confirm’ button.
Again, loading of files and graphics for the new skin might take some time so be sure to wait and don’t turn your game off.
Hope this little tutorial help you out, and if you spot any mistakes or have any questions, leave them in the comments.