Two students from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University win the 2014 FIFA/CIES Network Prize

During a meeting held on 20 January 2014 at FIFA headquarters in Zurich, an international jury consisting of representatives from FIFA, CIES and academia awarded the 2014 International University Network Prize to two students from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) in Port Elizabeth (South Africa).

After examining the 10 submitted projects, the jury decided to award the Network Prize to the work presented by Yoliswa Lumka and David Kappel, two students of the sixth edition of the NMMU/FIFA/CIES Programme in sport management, on “Women’s football. Competition and Player Development”. Their research compares the current situation of women’s football in Germany and South Africa, and proposes some recommendations to develop the practice of this sport in the latter country.

The choice by the jury members was not an easy one as two other projects had held their full attention, namely the work submitted by students from the Universidad Católica Argentina (“Physical and Sports Observatory for Senior Citizens” by Leornardo Alberto and Carlos Terán) and Cairo University (“A New Vision for Egypt's 2nd Division” by Moustafa Essam, Amr Aly, George Hakim and Nadim Magdy).

After lengthy deliberations, the jury declared: “We have chosen three final projects for the relevance of their topics, the clarity of their argumentation and their structured approach. Our decision to award the Network Prize to the NMMU students was based on the work’s academic qualities, its aspects related to knowledge transfer and sports legacy, as well as its relevance for the evolution of football in South Africa.”

Furthermore, the jury members have noticed a continuous improvement in the quality of the projects, especially in terms of content (choice and relevance of the topics, adequacy with the national sport setting, feasibility, etc.). They emphasised the constant effort made by the partner universities to ensure that the group works are an essential component of the FIFA/CIES sport management Programme.

In this respect, CIES General Secretary Vincent Schatzmann commented: “It is indispensable to put theoretical principles into practice. Every day, sports managers are confronted with situations that call for pragmatic decisions, in keeping with the local sports environment. Group projects contribute to creating an essential link between academic courses and realities in the field."

Created in 2011, following a proposal made by the Universidad Católica Argentina, the Prize acknowledges the best group project developed within the FIFA/CIES Programme in sport management. The prize-winners will now have the opportunity to travel to Switzerland and visit FIFA’s “House of Football”, the CIES headquarters in Neuchâtel and to present their work to the FIFA Master students.

FIFA and CIES thank all the groups who took part in the competition for their praiseworthy efforts and extend their congratulations to Yoliswa Lumka and David Kappel.