Manchester City FC and the FIFA Master

The 20th edition FIFA Master – International MA in Management, Law and Humanities of Sport - class continued their Humanities of Sport module studies this month with a privileged behind the scenes field visit to the current Premier League Champions, Manchester City FC. The specially arranged visit allowed the FIFA Master class, which includes students from around the world, to learn more about the impressive City Football Group (CFG) network which now consists of Manchester City FC, and various other affiliations and associations with teams around the world including New York City FC (USA), Melbourne City FC (Australia), Yokohama F. Marinos (Japan), Girona FC (Spain), Club Atlético Torque (Uruguay) and Sichuan Jiuniu (China).

On arrival, the FIFA Master postgraduates were warmly welcomed by Manchester City Football Club Chief Operating Officer, Omar Berrada, who provided a detailed overview of the CFG group structure and answered questions from the class in a special Q and A session. Mr Berrada was then followed by further meetings with leading club Directors and members of the senior management team who generously delivered presentations to the class on key areas of the club, ranging from commercial partnerships and match day operations to the strategy behind the highly successful Manchester City Women’s Team.

Following the busy morning of guest speakers, the class then undertook an afternoon tour of the Etihad stadium itself as the venue was preparing for the Manchester City v. Atalanta B.C. Champions League fixture the following evening. Next, the class transferred to the state of the art City Football Academy (CFA) complex. A specially arranged tour of this facility by the CFA Facilities Team allowed the class to see at first hand where the club’s world-famous men’s and women’s team players such as Sergio Aguero, Kevin De Bruyne, David Silva, Raheem Steerling, Steph Houghton, Ellen White, Jill Scott and Karen Bardsley prepare for matches each week, as well as the training facilities available for MCFC academy players.

FIFA Master Module Co-ordinator James Panter who organised the visit said, “I would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody at Manchester City FC who met with us during our day of meetings at the club. The CFG business structure, club training facilities and achievements of the Manchester City Women’s Team, both on and off the pitch, are of great interest to our students. To have the opportunity to meet the people responsible for these successes will play an important part in the class learning process and act as a key point of reference as they develop their careers in international sport after graduation from the FIFA Master”.

Thank you to Manchester City FC for a truly memorable visit and good luck from everybody in the 20th edition class to the MCFC men’s, women’s and academy teams for the remainder of the 2019/20 season.

 

FIFA Master - International Master in Management, Law and Humanities of Sport, ranked No.1 Course in Europe 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019 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).