FIFA Master - 15th Edition: It’s a Go!

The week of September 15, 2014 will most probably be marked in our minds for the rest of our lives. It is the week we started the FIFA Master, a prestigious programme in Humanities, Management and Law of Sports that we all dreamt about attending. The selection process was long, but it was worth the wait: in the end, a diverse group of 32 students coming from all continents and from various professional backgrounds were selected.

The programme starts with the Humanities Module in Leicester, United Kingdom, at De Montfort University where the internationally renowned International Centre for Sports History and Culture (ICSHC) is located. As future sports managers, it is very important to understand what happened in the past, why it happened and how it happened, in order to understand today's sports industry and culture. During the first weeks of the humanities module, we studied the birth of modern sport and the professionalization of sport: we learnt how modern sport was created, what were the social changes that helped its creation and how such social changes still impact today's sports industry. During these few weeks, we had the extraordinary opportunity to receive lectures from the most renowned specialists in sports history such as Richard Holt, Martin Polley, Tony Collins and David Goldblatt, just to name a few.

One of the big advantages of the programme is its proximity to major sports institutions. Because of this, we have had the honour of being received at venues such as Wimbledon, Manchester United, Rugby School, Leicester Tigers Rugby Club and Manchester City FC and where we had the extraordinary opportunity to meet with top sports administrators. Although lectures and readings are important to help better understand the basics, you cannot learn more richly than by meeting the sports managers themselves and ask them personally any questions that arise. For example, at both Manchester United and Manchester City, we had the privilege of meeting  senior club directors  for more than three  hours!

To us personally, however, the best part of the programme has been the the group of students themselves. During the first week in Leicester, we have built strong ties and have already become very close. Sharing our own experiences, life lessons, stories and (lots of) moments of laughter around a cup of tea or a beer at the pub is something that cannot be bought. We learn so much from our classmates, and to us personally, this is as important as what we learn in class and on field visits. The Selection Committee definitely did a great job in bringing this group together!

Over the next few weeks, we will dive into the subject of the internationalization of sports, a subject that is very important in today's globalization era and proudly reflected in the diversity of the students. We definitely look forward to this and many more field visits, great lectures and memorable moments with the group!

Charles Frémont and Marianne Cornejo

Class Representatives for the Humanities Module