FIFA MASTER ALUMNI - WHERE ARE THEY NOW? - YASH CHUGH

Yash Chugh

Current Position: Competitions Manager - Indian Super League

Year of graduation: 2020 (20th edition)

Nationality: Indian

What does your current role involve?

I currently work in the Competitions Team at the Indian Super League, which is the top-division of football in India. My current role involves managing football and team related aspects with the participant clubs of the league and stakeholders of the league. My responsibilities fall under a few heads that include Player Registrations, Matchday Competition management and more. The focus is assistance and competition related alignment to all stakeholders involved with managing a match, such as Team Officials, Players, Broadcast Officials, Club Operations Executives, Venue Team Officials & Match Officials and the Federation.
Prior to this, I spent three years working on various commercial aspects of top-tier sports properties and talent, such as delivering partnerships at the highest level. I was able to navigate the nuances of sales, asset-building and delivery with both the top sports in the country - Football and Cricket.

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

On a personal level, I believe the FIFA Master helped give me a world map of each subsection of the sports industry. This meant really understanding the nuances between each part of the sector and their links with each other. Almost like a VR headset with sports concepts, you’re able to place any aspect of the sports industry in your mind’s library, accessing it when your work requires you to do so. It also helped that I completed the course relatively early at the age of 27. It meant I had a certain amount of experience and I could take steps towards the type of work I was most interested in.

Of course, one of the biggest and most priceless aspects of the FIFA Master is the network and your classmates. I can’t begin to explain how vast this is and the types of people you will meet who will have a direct and positive impact on how you maneuver through your career. For example, when I was at a crossroads in my own career, an alumni member helped rearrange my strategy and figure out how to re-launch my career (he actually was a career counsellor too at that point in his own career!). During a difficult period post-covid, an alumni member looped me into a really interesting project of his. Today, I have regular calls with my classmates to discuss new and upcoming aspects of the industry or to learn from what they’re working on. Also, the organization I work with today has five FIFA Master alumni members so we are often at the office together discussing innovation or reminiscing about our specific year on the course.

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

I would recommend to all students that they cherish their time on the FIFA Master. The year flies by in a jiffy and you will look back and remember smaller, fun parts with your classmates. They live with you, teach you and help you to get better. Another thing I definitely recommend to all is to delve into what makes you curious in the industry, no matter how monotonous it may seem to others around you. Ask questions, research what you enjoy and learn from whichever faculty you are based in at the time. I promise you they will have answers to your questions or can show you where to find your answer in order to keep expanding your thoughts and knowledge. That is the thread to follow and ultimately leads to innovation and betterment of yourself as an individual - and the industry as a whole. You will then eventually really make an impact on this beautiful industry which we have all chosen to be in.

FIFA Master - International Master in Management, Law and Humanities of Sport, ranked  Europe's No.1 course a record 11 times by SportBusiness.

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