CIES and FIFA MASTER Marks International Women’s Day 2025

Saturday 8th March will be International Women’s Day (IWD) 2025. First established in the 1900’s, the day is a global celebration of the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. IWD is also held at the same time as Women's History Month, which again highlights the important contributions women have made to history, society and sport.
The theme for IWD this year is #AccelerateAction and the FIFA Master will once again be marking the event as we also celebrate our own course milestone of 25 years of excellence in sport business education.
Since the first edition of the FIFA Master was launched, nearly 230 female students from around the world have graduated from our programme and are now working in the global sports industry.
We are proud to be able to name Women’s Olympic Rowing Gold Medallist Emma Twigg (15th edition) and UEFA Women’s Champions League Winner, Ami Otaki (17th edition), as well as numerous other elite level female athletes among our FIFA Master alumni community. In addition, we have a large number of course graduates now working in senior women’s sport development and equality positions around the world.
We are also proud to have Geneva Decker (USA), Gina Franco (USA/Colombia), Lace Hallendorff (South Africa), Daniela Huaman Rodriguez (Britain, Spain, Peru), Risa Kabasawa (Japan), Antonia Marie Lindemann (Germany) and Blandina Mdebwe (Malawi) as members of the current 25th anniversary edition of the FIFA Master.
It should be noted, however, that although IWD is only held on one date, the themes of gender equality, women’s sport history and female leadership are addressed during the full academic year of the FIFA Master and within all modules of the course held in Leicester, Milan and Neuchâtel.
Look out for various FIFA Master social media posts linked to IWD 2025 and also special editions of our ‘Where are they now?’ alumni interview series as we meet 21st edition graduate and now FIFA Football Technology Standards Manager, Zeina Hamarsha from Jordan, and also 22nd edition graduate and now Campaigns and Internal Communications Manager at FIFPro, Debola Adebanjo from Nigeria.
#IWD2025 #AccelerateAction