EA Football Manager 2001 (PAL) help (general newbie questions and such)

Okay, bear with me, new to this. I ordered what I thought was a PC version of this game (of eBay), but it turned out to be a PS version. Not having a Playstation, was a bit upset, but eBay being what it is, well, that's life. But a family member had an extra one, so I borrowed it yesterday morning. Well, being in the States, it didn't play. In the last 24 hours I've learned a LOT about PSX games/copying/patching, but am still a newbie. So here are the details of what I have, and then I'll ask my questions.

PAL EA Football Manager 2001
NTSC Playstation (BIOS SCPH-5501) August 1997

I've downloaded some emulators, but can only get so far (I can select the league I want to be in, select my team, and ##### the basic info, but that's it..no actual playing of the game) before the game tells me "Software piracy is illegal in this territory, please see your user manual for details" or some such message and then locks. Looking at the manual (yes, it's 100% legit, the case came still shrinkwrapped in the Sony cellophane), there's no mention of what to do, though (of course). From what I've read, the emulators can't handle the PSX/Libcrypt (that's what Clony tells me it is), so there's probably no patch so that I can play my muliple hard drive-saved ISO/BIN's (I've been doing some searching on the net for the last day, got a LOT of files/programs/info/readers, etc).

My question is, based on the game version and playstation version I have, will it be possible for me to create a version of this game to play on my PS? I've heard of boot disks to fool the PS..do these work? I'd rather not get a mod-chip, since this isn't my PS (on long-term loan), but I DO want to play this game.

From what I gather, creating an ISO via CDRWin, patching it (still not sure where to get this or how to make one), and then burning a new disk SOUNDS possible, but will this work? I currently do not have a burner, but have been planning on getting one for a few months, this may be just the excuse I need ;-) If I do go out and get one, any specific model recommendations? What about emulators? The only one I've gotten to run good video and sound is ePSXe, but if it cannot be made to run a Libcrypted ISO (or disc), is there one out there that will?

Any help appreciated. For not having a Playstation until yesterday, I feel like I know too much already...

Just wanted to let anyone know I found a PPF patch, and am now able to play (at least further than before) my patched BIN on the ePSXe emulator. How long this will last, who knows.

Any input is always appreciated by this newbie.