FIFA Master Alumni – Where are they now? Namrata Chatterjee

Namrata Chatterjee

Current Position: Legal Counsel, Asian Football Confederation

Year of graduation: 2016 (16th Edition)

Nationality: Indian

What does your current role involve?

I am a legal counsel within the sports legal services, disciplinary and governance unit of the AFC legal department. My current role, to a large extent, involves working on regulatory matters and dealing with disciplinary issues before the AFC judicial bodies as well as the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

In my capacity as the deputy secretary to the AFC judicial bodies, I present cases of disciplinary misconduct, anti-doping, match-manipulation and various other violations of competition regulations, club licensing regulations etc. by the players, clubs and member associations amongst others within Asian football.

I also undertake drafting and reviewing of various regulations governing AFC and its competitions. I partake in investigatory work and also deal with legal issues relating to player status. My role also requires me to do presentations at AFC workshops and other events on legal issues within the dispute resolution and disciplinary realm in football in Asia. Representing AFC, I have also participated in a panel discussion for Women in Sports Law (WISLaw) about the legal issues of women’s football.

My role at AFC also entails my appointment as a legal officer at venue for our competitions which provides practical experience of handling legal issues that arise during the competitions.

 

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

The FIFA Master certainly helped me to gain a foothold in the sport industry. Apart from enriching my knowledge on a wide variety of issues in the sport world, it also gave me a lot of insights on the different dimensions of the sports industry in a practical sense. The humanities of sport module provided important geo-political knowledge of matters connected to sports that quite often proves to be beneficial in my current work. The management module provided a fair understanding of the business side of sports and the sports law module in addition to giving me specialised knowledge in my interest area also provided me an opportunity to get the guidance of eminent lecturers and sports lawyers. This master enhanced my group work and team spirit through our final project and personally for me working on a topic relating to governance in sports has been useful in dealing with governance related work at AFC as well.

Above all, the FIFA Master connected me to alumni from all across the globe who have always been very approachable. Even when I first joined the AFC, the head of my unit at the time was a FIFA Master alumnus who gave me invaluable guidance and our common background made working together much easier.

 

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

The FIFA Master is an experience in itself which beyond anything else will give you life lessons. The intercultural exchanges with your classmates from diverse backgrounds will make you a wiser person. You will leave this course with friends across continents, working in different sports. It will not always be easy to manage the logistics of moving across three different countries but for the value addition that you will get out of this course including the network of sport professionals is worth it!

 

The FIFA Master - International Master in Management, Law and Humanities of Sport is organized by the CIES in partnership with De Montfort University (Leicester, UK), SDA Bocconi School of Management (Milan, Italy) and the University of Neuchâtel. In 2017 the FIFA Master was ranked as the No.1 course in Europe for the fifth time by the SportBusiness International global rankings.

Discover more examples of inspiring FIFA Master alumni career paths by clicking here.