FIFA MASTER ALUMNI - WHERE ARE THEY NOW? - KASRA HAGHIGHI

Kasra Asrar Haghighi

Current Position: FIFA Head of Olympics, Futsal and Beach Soccer

Year of graduation: 2009 (9th edition)

Nationality: Iranian / Canadian

What does your current role involve?

I work at FIFA as the Head of Olympics, Futsal and Beach Soccer. My team is responsible for the planning and delivery of futsal, beach soccer, Olympic Football tournaments and Youth Olympic Futsal Tournaments. Our goal is to work with hosts to deliver successful, entertaining and memorable events. Internally, we lead cross-organisational teams to ensure everything runs to FIFA standards.  

For the Olympics, like other International Federations, we work with the IOC to determine the sport technical requirements, draw up regulations, conduct the qualifiers in collaboration with our confederations and to deliver the event time operations. Another important part of my role involves concepting and introducing new competition formats to ensure we are both inclusive and commercially appealing. Finally, we also look after the international match calendars for futsal and we are currently in the process of launching the first FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup.

Which aspects of the FIFA Master course have helped you most in your career?

The FIFA Master allowed me to connect with numerous industry professionals during my studies. Many of these I continue to have a good relationship with. But perhaps most importantly, the course provided me with a solid foundation to better understand how sports operate across the globe. The multi-cultural learning environment definitely helped to prepare me for working in international sport.

What advice would you give to future students on the course?

Use every opportunity to maximize your learning from the programme and don’t pass up on any opportunity to meet new people or to learn something new. The FIFA Master not only provides a rich learning environment, but also helps to build bridges and relationships which will last a lifetime. In my case, I’m married to an alumni and have made some of my best friends through the FIFA Master.

FIFA Master - International Master in Management, Law and Humanities of Sport, ranked No.1 Course in Europe 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 by the SportBusiness International global rankings.

Organised by CIES in partnership with De Montfort University (United Kingdom), SDA Bocconi School of Management (Italy) and the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland).