‘From AC Milan to Venice’

FIFA Master 19 Edition Class – SDA Bocconi Module Report, February 2019

What a month this has been! Our lives as FIFA Master students couldn’t have been more intense and filled with memorable experiences!

We kicked off the month of February with Sports Marketing classes and important guest speakers, such as Andrea Ceraico, who is the General Director at Red Bull Italia, and Simone Santini, Vice President Sales at Adidas group. With them, as well as all the other guest speakers we have been fortunate to meet, we were able to look at current marketing trends in the world of sport and engage in open discussions about the characteristics needed to be successful sports manager today. Having guest speakers come talk to us about their jobs and their organisations has also allowed us to familiarise ourselves with their businesses as well as engage with them on a more personal level, asking about their perspectives and their own career journeys. This has been invaluable.

In addition to Marketing, we have also studied Digital & Analytics and analysed the impact of new technologies with many our guest speakers. The Chief Digital Transformation and Innovation Officer at FIFA, Luis Vicente, gave us valuable insights into new digital strategies at FIFA and told us about their current challenges and opportunities. We were also lucky to have two FIFA Master Alumni as guest speakers this month, with Adam Crothers and Marcelo Cordeiro, Licensing Director at IMG. Adam Crothers, on his side, is now the Head of Digital Licensing & Partnerships in F1, and he shared with us further valuable insights on the world of digital and Formula 1. We were happy to hear his experiences of being a FIFA Master student in 2011 and we made sure we didn’t miss the opportunity to ask him about his best memories of his time at SDA Bocconi!

An eagerly anticipated moment over the past month was our field trip to Casa Milan, the new headquarters of AC Milan. The afternoon at Casa Milan started with a tour of Mondo Milan Museum alongside Account Manager Luca Bertarini, who accompanied us throughout the innovative and interactive exhibition which presents AC Milan’s long and proud history. After a short coffee break, to keep in line with important Italian traditions, we were next invited to listen to Luca Bertarini and Jean Romagnoli’s presentations on AC Milan’s international business development strategies. Here, we were incredibly surprised to see former player, Daniele Massaro, come and talk to us about his career while holding one of the seven Champions League trophies won by the club. The famous “Cup with Big Ears”.

In the following days, we implemented the key learnings from our time at Casa Milan, in combination with what we had previously learnt in class, to work on group projects focused on new sponsorship and revenue ideas for AC Milan.

However, February was not only filled with classes, exams, company visits, and guest speakers. Once outside of the SDA Bocconi classrooms, we continued to explore Milan and its magnificent jewels. Other than its sacred sporting sites, we have had the chance to visit The Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie and Leonardo Da Vinci’s masterpiece, the Last Supper, which is located inside its refectory. We also saw the city blossom with beauty during the Milano Fashion Week. There is no doubt that an  added benefit of studying in Italy, and Milan in particular, is the opportunity to explore other sectors in which the “Made in Italy” brand excels, such as art, fashion, and food. We can now bring to the world of sport what we have learnt from these diverse cultural industries.

Mindful of these opportunities, and after finishing our last exam for the Sports Marketing sub-module, we organised a weekend class trip to Venice during its famous Carnevale, where we could see first hand the famous Venetian masks and gondolas.

SDA Bocconi and Italy have so much to other and the days are flying by quickly. Although March will be our last month in Milan, we will certainly be sure to continue making the most of our time here.

Vittorio Canteri and Erica Puppo. 19th edition class representatives for the Milan module.

 

FIFA Master - International Master in Management, Law and Humanities of Sport, ranked No.1 Course in Europe 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018 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).

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