TO its hordes of devoted fans, Championship Manager is not just a matter of life and death - it's far more important than that.

Former Liverpool manager Bill Shankley's famous description of football only hints at the appeal of the hyper-addictive football management simulation, whose fourth incarnation has just become the fastest-selling PC game of all-time.

Championship Manager 4, which generated retail sales of 125,000 in its first week of release, is the latest edition of the game which has sold more than 3m copies worldwide since its initial launch in 1992.

And whether you favour the studious approach of Sven Goran-Eriksson or the choleric, tea-cup hurling methods of Sir Alex Ferguson, CM4 offers every football fan the chance to live the dream of taking their team to the league title.

"We are not trying to make a fun game," says Miles Jacobson, Managing Director of Sports Interactive, the company behind the phenomenon.

"We are trying to replicate the job of a football manager. It's more of a football simulation than a game."

Championship Manager prides itself on realism and each updated edition contains new features to make players feel closer to the cherished manager's bench.

Egocentric agents

On top of the usual challenges of egocentric agents and injury-prone strikers, CM4 allows managers to choose training ground routines and watch their team in action on a 2D match-day screen.

With an international scouting team that would be the envy of any major club side, CM4 has up-to-date details of more than 200,000 players and staff from 39 national leagues.

The possibilities are endless, guaranteeing sleepless nights and the alienation of friends and family for anyone brave enough to load up the game.

At Worcester's Software Store in Reindeer Court, the game sold out within days of its release on March 28.

"We're out of stock again now," said retail operations manager Jim Faust.

"It has incredible appeal because you are able to create your own dream team, which is every football fan's fantasy.

"If you buy the right players and your team starts to do well and make money, it is extremely satisfying."

So, what went into creating the new version?

"We asked people in the game for advice and we took on (former professional footballer) Ray Houghton to help us make the game as realistic as possible," said Jacobson.

"Maybe we should give out a free heart monitor with every game!"

The Championship Manager phenomenon began in a teenage bedroom. Brothers Paul and Oliver Collyer were so frustrated by the limitations of other football management games that they decided to make a game of their own.

Five years later, with the pair aged just 19 and 21, their addictive beast was unleashed, and the CM animal rages with a fervour to this day, counting numerous relationships among its victims.

Agony aunt columns have long been littered with complaints from the girlfriends of CM-obsessed males and the game has even been cited in three divorce cases. But do such stories worry Jacobson?

"There has to be something seriously wrong in someone's marriage for a computer game to get between them. We are not proud of being cited but we are happy if people see it as a safe haven to escape to.

"It's not as if we are selling cigarettes or guns or anything like that. Everyone needs a hobby and Championship Manager is a hobby to some people."

The unerring demand for information and anecdotes about CM has also spawned the inevitable internet message board and an official Championship Manager magazine, whose third edition is due out in May.

The magazine's editor, Lee Hall, who has also worked for PlayStation Magazine, stresses the differences between CM and other computer games.

"The game isn't instantly accessible and gratifying like PlayStation 2 games. It's totally non-graphical but it really gets under your skin.

"When you are doing really well you want to play on and when you are doing badly you want to turn the corner. It appeals to a different audience and you have to work at it to be successful.

The gulf between Championship Manager and its less cerebral shoot-em-up siblings was even highlighted by teachers working for the Department of Education.

The Teachers Evaluating Educational Multimedia (TEEM) study found that strategic games like Championship Manager and SimCity improved children's ability to think and plan ahead, to the obvious delight of Jacobson and his team.

"Through playing CM, you learn about finance, football and how to treat people," he says.

"We are making a simulation and if it ends up being both fun and educational then that's great."

Hall is less convinced by the educational benefits of CM, but he is adamant that computer games do very little harm.

"I see games as something to fill your spare time with. They are an alternative to other forms of entertainment like DVDs and watching television.

"In fact, computer games are more proactive than watching a movie, because at least you are doing something rather than vegetating passively on the couch."