You can divide people into two distinct groups, those who play Sega's Football Manager and those who'd rather watch moss grow than play that game. Given that you don't actually get to control the players in the game, but merely manage your team and try to turn it into a champion, it definitely doesn't appeal to everyone. But the folks who get hooked usually end up spending way too much time playing it.
Once you're addicted to a game, the only thing that can really save you is work or school, as this is the time when you simply cannot play. Luckily (or unfortunately, depending how you look at it) for Football Manager fans, this is no longer the case, as the mobile version of the game has arrived on the iPhone. As one of the customer reviews on iTunes put it, "Please tell my wife & children I love them."
The game is called Football Manager Handheld 2010, and while it's not the same game as the PC version, it does have most of its features -- and, hopefully, its addictiveness. You can manage clubs in any of 34 leagues from 11 countries, and control your tactics, formations, team and individual player instructions, as well as training and transfers.
The game is available here [iTunes link], and it costs $10 in the U.S. and €10 in Europe.