Sports Management Blog

Media (in sports as much as in general) has to emerge from the Jurassic age…

It needs to be ready to answer the requirements of the sports fans – although these requirements might be disliked by the media representatives (including the International Sports Press Association).

Lots of emphasis on the “quality” on the information. Insists on the “cultural” role of the sports media.

Also stresses the need for media to collaborate more with International Federations to eradicate 2 of the greatest threats facing international sports:

• doping,
• corruption (through illegal betting).

This post contains my live notes on one of the topics covered during the 2010 Lausanne International Sports Management Conference. Apologies for any typo and/or misinterpretations which might have snuck in the text.
Feel free to comment below!

Topic: Bridging Research and practice – the case of UEFA & European football

Cooperation with universities – 2 main areas:

1. Professional Development Programs (development of executives & knowledge, academic recognition);

2. Research (grant programs, research with students).

Main principles of cooperation with universities:

• At the service of football,
• Must be “the best of the best”,
• No global agreement with single academic institution (plurality of research centres).

Professional Development Program built on 3 stages/steps:

• Certificate in Football Management, reserved to members of European Football Associations – delivered by IDHEAP (Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration) in Lausanne,
• Diploma in Football Management, also reserved to members of European Football Associations,
• Executive Master in European Sports Governance (MESGO), in collaboration with other European sports’ associations, co-delivered/certified by 5 academic institutions.

Nearly 500 staff currently at UEFA, many of which have followed one form or another of academic education in the field of sports or related fields.

Some of the most recent concrete examples of the application of research in the field of European football:

• Analysis and re-definition of the international transfer system
• Legality and usefulness of central marketing system
• Development of the “Local Trained Player” rule
• Questions raised by the need to protect minors
• Rules & data behind the Financial Fair Play initiative

This post contains my live notes on one of the topics covered during the 2010 Lausanne International Sports Management Conference. Apologies for any typo and/or misinterpretations which might have snuck in the text.
Feel free to comment below!

Some learnings from research: loss of some of the younger audience as well as drop in sports participation, led to a number of new initiatives.

1. Youth Olympic Games (YOG)

Attempt to stimulate the younger generation (14-18) which would represent the pinnacle of a young person’s sports career – BUT need to combine sport with culture and education. Some were doubtful about combining these elements.

Result of the 1st edition: resounding success, to the point that some young sportspeople perform even better after the event than before. Further benefit: youngsters start to understand and live the Olympic values.

Not everything was perfect – but fundamentally, the YOG product has proved its usefulness.

2. Olympic Program

Ultimate challenge: remain relevant across all continents. Sports practice evolves every day, so Program needs to evolve with it. Need to take into account new trends into the Events.

Different approach to selection of sports/disciplines which are allowed to enter the Program: key notion of value-added (to the Olympic Games). Criteria was used for selection of golf & rugby-7 in Summer Program. 10-12 new sports/disciplines are planned to be added to the Sochi Program leveraging same key notion.

3. 360° Management

Based on learnings from observation of successful non-sports organisations. Want to start managing the IOC based on Community participation. Matrix structure, participative, much less hierarchical.

The wait is over – the 2010 Lausanne International Sports Management Conference is about to start !

Under the subheading “Bridging Research and Practice”, the 2-day conference (Nov. 5-6) brings together in Lausanne, Olympic Capital, a distinguished panel of speakers from both academia and major international sports organisations.

Participants can look forward to attending prestigious keynote presentations (from representatives of, among others, the IOC, FIFA, UEFA, FIBA), as well as hearing from leading academics about the latest developments in sports-management research. Panel discussions are also scheduled, as well as product demonstrations.

The Sports Management Blog will cover the event – I’ll share with you my main observations from the various presentations, lectures and panels, and will kick-start what I hope will be a lively discussion on some of the topics which are relevant to this blog, and to the management of sports in general. Stay tuned for more!

Are there any conference topics you’d be interested in hearing more about? Any speakers you’d like me to interview? Let me know in the comments !

An interesting article was posted recently on the Online Degree Programs blog. Entitled 100 Best Books for Serious Sports Fans, it groups the books by sports (baseball, basketball, American football, football [soccer for our US friends], tennis, golf) or genre (fiction, sports & society), and provides a short comment on each suggested book.

While the list is fairly heavily US-centric, some entries are more relevant to this blog’s main focus (a business/management perspective on sports, with a European focus), and are noteworthy. Among them, Soccernomics by the FT’s Simon Kuper, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami, and The Elusive Fan by Irving Rein, Philip Kotler and Ben Shields.

Personally, I would have mentioned some more “technical” tomes in the list, e.g. one of the many more academic volumes covering the management of sports, or even sports-specific training manuals; I simply assume that a “serious sports fan” also practices their favourite discipline, and is inherently interested in seeking new ways to train and improve their performance in it, and as a result, likes to read about how to get better at it. But that’s obviously bound to be very personal ! (When I decided to get serious about inline speedskating a few years ago, I bought the only “bible” in this field, Speed on Skates by Barry Publow, and have since read and used it so much that it is almost falling apart !)

Which book is, in your opinion, a must-read for you fellow Sports Management Blog readers? Chime in in the comments below !