Lord’s Cricket Ground and Harlequins Welcome FIFA Master 18th Edition Class

On Friday 24th November, the FIFA Master 18th edition class concluded their Humanities of Sport module field visit programme with visits to the world famous Lord’s cricket ground and historic Harlequins rugby club in London.

Lord’s, which is regarded as the spiritual ‘home of cricket’ is located in the St John’s Wood area of the city. During the morning visit, the FIFA Master postgraduates had the opportunity to learn about the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), which was founded in 1787, and why Lord’s is the ground that every cricketer dreams of playing the game.  As part of the first museum stop, the FIFA Master postgraduates were able to view the historic Ashes urn – which the Australian and England international cricket teams are currently competing to win in the five Test series which has just started in Australia. Later the class had the chance to enter the famous Long Room in the main pavilion and also the player dressing rooms. The morning field visit then concluded with a stop at the iconic Lord’s media centre building.

The afternoon saw the class travel across London to The Twickenham Stoop, which is the home ground for Harlequins Premiership rugby club. Founded in 1866, Harlequins were one of the founding members of the Rugby Football Union (RFU). Here, the class were met by 13th edition FIFA Master alumni, Danis Roberts, who is the Digital Content Manager at the famous old club. An afternoon of presentations by Danis and other senior club management covered areas such as Marketing, Supporter Engagement and Strategic Initiatives. This was then followed by a special question and answer session with Harlequins player and Rugby Players Association (RPA) Chairman, Mark Lambert. Mark has made over 215 appearances for the London club and has been on the RPA Board for five seasons.

James Panter, who is the FIFA Master Humanities of Sport Module Co-ordinator said, “I would like to take this opportunity to thank both Lord’s and everybody who met with the class at Harlequins. The chance to visit both venues and to meet with organisation representatives resulted in an extremely informative and enjoyable day. We are very grateful for their help and support”.

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 a record fifth time by the SportBusiness International global rankings.