‘The Final Stretch’: FIFA Master Sports Law Module Report
With three exams, six field visits, four football games, an entrepreneurship day, a job fair, our daily classes and three very welcome public holidays, May has been both an extremely exciting and a slightly exhausting month for the students of the FIFA Master 18th edition.
It actually all started very smoothly with the 1st May public holiday. Little did we know that this was only the calm before the storm. On the next day we had our second exam of the Law module, covering the American sport system, the legal aspects of financing in sports as well as events and liabilities considerations. From there on it became hectic. We started a new sub-module about Ethical Issues, where Prof. Cornu warned us about the ins and outs of sport betting, match fixing and corruption in sports. Later, Prof. Oswald and experts such as Prof. Saugy, Dr. Viret and Prof. Wisnosky taught us all about doping, its legal implications and of course the relevancy of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). It ended with a great round table covering these various topics. But most interestingly, we were able to hear directly from the mouth of its main author, the conclusions of the recent Oswald Commission which was in charge of inquiring about the latest Russian Olympic Federation doping scandals. We then moved on to the last sub-module of Neuchatel which was about Dispute Resolution in Sport. Here Prof. Besson introduced us to the peculiarities of an arbitration court versus an ordinary state court and what implications it has for the athletes, federations and the world of sport in general. As for the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) we had the privilege to learn directly from lecturer D. Mavromati who worked there for almost ten years. On top of the final written exams we concluded with a moot arbitration case, supervised by Prof. Rigozzi and lecturer A. Zagklis, where the whole class was divided into smaller groups, each one having to defend their case.
As mentioned earlier, during the month of May we have also been fortunate to attend many exciting field visits. It started with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne, just by the shores of the beautiful Lake Geneva. Accessing the archives and seeing original letters written and signed by Pierre de Coubertin himself back in the early 20th century was probably the highlight of the visit for many of the class. About two weeks later, and after enjoying both the second holiday of the month and winning a football game in Luzern against Team Marketing (UEFA service provider), we went all the way to Mies (near Geneva) to visit the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) in order to get a better understanding of their activities, and especially the very successful 3x3 competition format which will be officially admitted at the next Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo.
After lunch we were able to walk just next door to visit the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) in their brand new building in the shape of a wheel to replicate that of a motorcycle. That same day we played a mixed girls and boys football game against the IOC and then watched the Europa League Final all together while mingling and enjoying pizza. During that same week we had a full day with alumni who have become successful entrepreneurs since graduation from the FIFA Master. They were able to share with us their adventures, failures and success as part of this challenging career path. This was actually the perfect transition before attending the iWorkinSport job fair held at the Swiss Convention Center in Lausanne the very next day. Here, we had the opportunity to approach and discuss with many potential employers, discover new organisations and listen to guest lectures given by experts in the sports industry. It was a long and tiring day but definitely of great benefit.
During our last week of May we spent quite some time in Lausanne going to the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB), the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) as well as the Maison International du Sport (MSI) where we were given a great insight into the successful Lausanne 2020 Youth Winter Olympic Games bid, the World Archery strategy, the Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation and finally the International University Sport Federation, which was a great discovery to many of us.
We have now reached the final stretch of the FIFA Master. Classes are over and we have one last oral exam to cope with. The month of June will then be dedicated in part to job hunting but mostly to the writing of our individual Final Projects which will then be presented to the public during our the graduation ceremony week in July. Let's keep the energy up, the ideas flowing, and see you all on 13th July for a great celebration!
FIFA Master - International Master in Management, Law and Humanities of Sport, ranked No.1 Course in Europe 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 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).
