Program Overview

Football Team Management

“Win it before it happens!”

This course is designed for players, ex-players, managers, and business people whose aim is to manage a winning team and contribute to the creation of a healthy atmosphere of success in themselves and their players by building from the inside out with ethical practice and insightful visionary leadership.

Topics covered by the Programme:

Introduction: The Organization of Football

• The role of sport in society
• History of the game
• Case studies – The best and the worst “there are no mistakes, only results”
• Overview of international organizations and tournaments
• “The team is You”

Strategic and Performance Management

Will give you the tool kit to make your team’s skills excel and turn weaknesses into assets. Subtopics covered:

• Scouting
• Training your team
• Motivation
• Mental well-being and injury prevention
• Injury support – manager’s responsibility – Health and Safety
• Managing human resources
• Measuring performance and aiming higher – methods to improve playing skills
• Friendly games – exposition games and ‘scrimmage playing’
• Positive reinforcement – a framework for victory

Operational Management

Will guide you through the business side of running your organization and will include:

• Legal Issues – Amateur vs. Professional
• Contracts and Contractual Stability – Pros and Cons of Using agents
• Traveling – how to – International transfer of minors
• Disciplinary procedures in football (FIFA and UEFA models)
• UEFA’s financial fair play system
• FIFA and other confederations
• Anti-doping rules and procedure
• Playing rules - national vs international
• Match-fixing: rules and regulations
• TV and IP rights

Football Marketing and Sponsorship

Will give you the tools to showcase your team, and attract fans and support. Analyze the importance of a strategic marketing approach to create value in the short and long term. Subtopics covered:

• Strategic marketing and procedures
• Defining a sports brand and how its brand should work across different touch points
• Definition and packaging of commercial rights and how they are brought to market, in terms of media rights in an era of convergence
• Sponsorship rights and latest trends – merchandising and licensing
• Ticketing and hospitality
• How to marry the rapidly changing Digital Marketing landscape with sports Promotion and the concept of commercial rights
• Analytics – the use of research and customer insights as the basis for Strategic Marketing

Communication Media and Public relations

Will provide the tools for always “putting the right foot forward”, making new contacts and keeping old ones. Subtopics covered:

• Defining the team’s image and finding the right spokesperson
• Technological/media challenges: media integrity
• Strategies implemented by public authorities to promote sports events
• Relations and responsibility issues between public authorities, local organizing committees, national federation
• Crisis management and communication strategies

Event and Volunteer Management

Will provide an overview on the organization and functioning of events particularly in Sports/Football. Event and volunteer management will cover the following subtopics:

• Range of sports event types: league organisation (“closed” v “open”), the Olympic movement’s associative model, two to three-week tournaments, one-off “match” events, tour events
• Risk assessment and management: economic risks (sponsor, competitor defection), security risks (terrorism, spectator violence, racism), insurance risks (player injuries) and issues of civil and criminal liability
• Master and contingency plans, integrated risk management and assessment programmes
• Human resource strategies – volunteer programs and mentoring
• Event and facility security and safety strategies, business models related to the construction and exploitation of event facilities
• Event and sponsorship contracts

Ethics

Will explain the range of ethical challenges facing a sports organisation and outline key mechanisms for addressing them by assessing:

• The theoretical foundation of ethics in sport (fairness, integrity, respect, equity as practical guidelines for management decision-making and coaching)
• Regulatory mechanisms for addressing economic corruption (e.g. combating event “fixing” in sport, drawing on lessons from other industries)
• Anti-doping policy, including the history of the international regulatory response and the establishment and practices of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)
• Anti-discrimination policies used to address racism and discrimination on the basis of gender, sexual orientation and disability
• The Ethical responsibility and challenges of the media
• Corporate social responsibility (CSR) in sport (its importance and why sports organisations are particularly well-suited as vehicles for effective CSR)
• Sustainable education programmes for players (their importance but also their effectiveness or lack thereof)

Entry requirements and Costs

Entry requirements:

• Academic committee selection based on CV
• Language: English – B2 level or equivalent

Cost:

• 8,900£ including registration

ESE's Internship Programme

Upon successful completion of the programme, participants may be eligible for Industry Experience / Internship (only where visa permits) tailored to their profile and career objectives. The ESE Placement department will conduct an assessment to evaluate the individual student’s eligibility and assist them in finding a suitable position. Regardless of visa status, Career Counseling Services and CV Development are available for all students.

Working in collaboration with more than fifteen hundred leading international companies, including some of FORTUNE’S 100 Best Companies to Work For, the European School of Economics offers one of the most competitive university internship programmes available today.