NOTE: If you are using Football Manager Touch 2017 then please see this page as I have decided to separate them out this year.
As with most recent Football Managers for you to make certain changes in Football Manager 2017 you need to create a new skin.
So to make things easier for people I've put up some base skins thatare identical to the default skins that come with the game, so you canadd new files/graphics to these without messing up the original skins,and anything that isn't located in these new skin folders will be takenfrom the default locations within the game.
For Football Manager 2017 you have three skins to choose from theDefault (Greenish) with Background Support skin, the Light skin and theDark skin.
Base2017 Skin - This is the Greenish Background Support skin and is based on the Default Football Manager Skin.

Base2017 Dark Skin - This is the Dark Base Skin and is based on the Football Manager Dark Skin.
Base2017 Light Skin - This is the Light Base Skin and is based on the Football Manager Light Skin.

Base2017 Light Skin v1.1 updated 7th November 2016 21:46 GMT
- Fixed problem with feed colours

Install Instructions:
When you extract the file you have downloaded you should have onefolder (with a name starting base17..) and a readme.txt file.
Now copy the folder into your skins folder within your User Data Location, by default this is:
For Windows:
C:Users[Your Windows Username]DocumentsSports InteractiveFootball Manager 2017
For Mac:
/Users/[Your Mac Username]/Documents/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2017/
For Linux:
/home/documents/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2017/
If done right your skins folder should look something like this:
And inside for example the base17 folder you should have the following folders:
When you load the game up if the skin cache is off any skins in theskins folder should appear in the skins menu like the below image:

If the skin cache is on you'll need to turn it off, exit thePreferences menu and re-enter it and any new skins should appear, ifnot tick 'Always Reload Skin on Confirm' and change skins, clickconfirm and go back in and your skin should appear.
How To Stop the Blurring Effect when Processing
FM2016 introduced a new feature where when the main screen isn't thefocus of the screen it blurs out, however if you don't like this effectit is simple enough to disable it, to do this simply browse to thefollowing location within the Base Skin you are using:
graphicsboxesdialogbackground
Inside will be a paper.xml file open that and locate this line:
<boolean value='true'/>
and change it to read:
<boolean value='false'/>
FM2017 has made a slight change to this, as the default graphic fileused to blur the screen has been made darker, so if when you disablethe blurring the background content still isn't clear enough, all youneed to do is look in the above folder and rename the two graphic filesfrom !paper to paper, and then reload the skin and the backgroundcontent should now be clearer.
How To enable Background Changes
FM2017 again supports background changes directly this year,however if you are using the Dark or Light Base skins there is a fileyou need to edit as they have a solid overlay over the backgroundmeaning that whilst the background is displaying you cannot see it.(You can do the same with the Default Base Skin aswell if thebackgrounds aren't clear enough by default).
Inside the Base skin that you have downloaded you need to browse to these two locations:
graphicsboxescustombackground
graphicsboxescustommatchbackground
And edit the paper.png file from each folder in an image editingprogram to increase the transparency of the image. The level oftransparency depends on your preference as it is a balance betweenseeing the background and making the skin readable.
If you need further help on editing the transparency of the images then have a look at this guide - its for FM2015 but the editing of the graphics is the same.
To Replace Graphics
To get the 2D pitch icons (balls, nets, players) into the game they nolonger need to go into the skins folder and can instead now beinstalled directly into the graphics folder.
To Edit the Fonts
The font settings are now controlled by the various files locatedinside the fonts folder. For the base skins I have included all thedefault font files to save you having to go look for them. To edit thefonts its just a case of changing the various variables declared in thexml files, whilst to change the actual font you copy the font you wantto use to the font folder and then update the font names in the xmlfiles to match your new font.
To Edit the Font Colours
The colour settings for each skin are controlled by the settings.xml file located inside the settings folder.
For the base skins I have copied in the relevant coding for you tochange the various colours used by the skin – you just need to openthe settings.xml file and locate the relevant line for the coloursetting you wish to change – the colour names and comments shouldexplain what the majority of the colours control.
The colours are declared in RGB values, that range from 0-255 whereRed=255 Green=255 Blue=255 is white and Red=0 Green=0 Blue=0 is black.
To locate the RGB value of a colour you want to use you can either usea image editing program to obtain the RGB Value of the colour or typergb values into google and it will bring up several websites that listthe RGB Values for various colours.
Note that whilst this file contains most of the text colour settings,some items are hardcoded, others are determined by the individual xmlfiles and some others are set by the xml files in the fonts folder.
Also if you have the Skin Cache on you can change some of the coloursdirectly through the game from the Preferences -> Interface->Skin Colours screen
How to Recolour the Game Colours
Like with Football Manager 2015 the colours of the various graphicsthat make up the skin are now controlled by settings.xml file locatedinside the settings folder.
For the base skins I have copied in the relevant coding for you tochange the various colours used by the skin – you just need to open thesettings.xml file and locate the relevant line for the colour settingyou wish to change – the colour names and comments should explain whatthe majority of the colours control.
To Edit the Attribute Threshold
This is now done in game via the Preferences -> Interface -> Skin Colours screen.
For your changes to take affect
If you have made any changes to the base skins (colours, fonts,graphics) to get your changes to show you’ll need to go into thePreferences -> Interface Menu and untick ‘Use caching to decreasepage loading times’ if it is ticked and then tick ‘Reload skin whenconfirming changes in Preferences’ then click confirm and your changesshould be applied, if you have previousily ticked and unticked therequired boxes a 'Reload Skin' button should appear in the bottom leftcorner, if this button appears you can click that if the Confirm Buttonis grayed out.
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You are free to do what you want (apart from upload to Steam Workshop as I'll upload them) with these Base Skins provided:
1. It is not sold or behind a paywall.
2. You don't advertise it as being exclusive to your website.
3. My username and blog address are included: http://michaeltmurrayuk.blogspot.co.uk/