FIFA MASTER ALUMNI - WHERE ARE THEY NOW? - HARLEY MITAROS
Current Position: Senior Partnership Marketing Executive at TEAM Marketing
Year of graduation: 2022 (22nd edition)
Nationality: Greek / Australian
What does your current role involve?
I joined TEAM Marketing one week after I graduated from the FIFA Master in 2022 and it’s been an incredible journey ever since. My day-to-day role is to support the management and marketing delivery of four major sponsor partnerships of the UEFA Champions League. This varied role includes managing key relationships, competition-related approval processes, preparing for matchday operations and assisting digital campaigns.
Since starting almost three years ago, I have enjoyed working on three UEFA Champions League Finals in Istanbul 2023, London 2024 and preparing for the upcoming Final in Munich for 2025. I have also had the opportunity to work with UCL partners on UEFA’s Marketing Promotions, its Champions Innovate programmes and the Lay’s Replay programme with the UEFA Foundation for Children. I truly love my role and I am appreciative of TEAM Marketing and UEFA for what has been an incredibly memorable three years in Switzerland.
Which aspects of the FIFA Master course have helped you most in your career?
The FIFA Master equipped me with the tools to understand the macroenvironment of the sports world. The course breadth of Management, Law and Humanities topics covered in class gave me the understanding of how I fit into the overall sports ecosystem and the powers at play. I feel this holistic understanding of sport has helped me calmly understand opportunities and challenges within the sports industry and made me a more critical thinker overall.
However, for me the most profound effect was on my life. Although I come from a faraway country in Australia, I have travelled a lot in my life and consider myself as worldly. But, when I joined the FIFA Master and started sharing viewpoints with thirty-two bright people representing twenty-six different nationalities, it opened my mind as a professional, as a sports fan and as a person. For me, it was enlightenment, like I can now see the world and its people more clearly. It is an experience I will forever be grateful for.
Finally, the FIFA Master Alumni is truly a wonder to behold. This network of friends and fellow sport professionals continues to add significant value at an exponential rate to both my personal and professional life. From the end of the FIFA Master, I have made countless new friends, traded business cards with impressive individuals and connected over incredible stories with people from completely different backgrounds. The camaraderie of the FIFA Master does not end after your year studying in class; it truly continues for life!
What advice would you give to future students on the course?
My advice to all current and incoming students to the programme is to seize the opportunity of the FIFA Master with passion, curiosity and an open-mind. Enjoy the diversity of your classmates. Ask them about their culture, their experiences, their viewpoints on the world and listen to learn. Also, when you really enjoy a lecture, continue the conversation. Walk up to a lecturer to discuss further, or debate it with your classmates over a meal. And finally, don’t forget to enjoy the journey. There is so much more to the course than the prestigious degree certificate you receive at the end.
FIFA Master - International Master in Management, Law and Humanities of Sport, ranked Europe's No.1 course a record 12 times by SportBusiness.
FIFA Master - 25 years of Excellence in Sport Business Education - organised by CIES in partnership with De Montfort University (UK), SDA Bocconi School of Management (Italy) and the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland).
