FIFA MASTER ALUMNI - WHERE ARE THEY NOW? - MICHAL RONIEK

Michal Roniek

Current Position: Senior Strategy Analyst – TEAM Marketing

Year of graduation: 2019 (19th edition)

Nationality: Polish

What does your current role involve?

I joined Team Marketing in 2019, almost straight from the Neuchatel football stadium where we celebrated our FIFA Master graduation. We are, and have been for 30 years, UEFA’s exclusive Club Competitions agency and get to work on some of the best sports properties in the world: UEFA Champions league and UEFA Europa League. We are creating, selling, and activating every aspect of the competitions’ media and sponsorship propositions.

My role in Strategy is to create the best possible commercial offering to our partners so that our revenues are maximised. I joined at the right time, so I got to work on the new Champions League format that comes into life in 2024. I was also able to use my Polish market knowledge and had a chance to join the media sales department for its regional sales in Poland.

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

From an educational point of view, the FIFA Master definitely provided me with a thorough overview of the sports industry. This is very helpful in my role as I need to work across or with many different stakeholders and need to understand their opposing needs and perspectives.

Moreover, the FIFA Master did actually give me my current job. After the lecture with TEAM Marketing, I had a chat with our guest lecturer, who is also a graduate from the course (John Barton from the 1st edition) and currently Sponsorship Director. After a quick chat, he told me about a role at TEAM. The rest is history.

However, the most important aspect of the FIFA Master for me, not only from a career perspective, are the friendships which I made during the course and also afterwards with various alumni. To show how important these people are in my life, I will just say that I have already been to two weddings of my classmates and I will be going to a third one later this year.

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

My advice would be very simple. Lectures, studying hard and doing well in your exams are all very important but, at the end of the day, it is the friends you will make, the alumni, even the lecturers that you can call and ask for a piece of advice or just to chat, which will be of the most benefit and not your old exam papers. Therefore, do make friends with your classmates, do try to understand their backgrounds, their stories, do hang out with them in Leicester, in Milan and in Neuchatel when Final Project presentations are nearing. Do not close yourself to new experiences that the class brings to you. Finally, always feel free to reach out to the course alumni as I am sure I speak on behalf of all the FMA community, we are always here to help you.

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 and 2021 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).