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A legal counsel for Brazilian football, a consultant for America’s top college football teams and a media officer for the Korean Basketball League are among the 32 students from around the globe who have started studying the prestigious FIFA Master course at Â鶹´«Ã½ Leicester (Â鶹´«Ã½).

The new cohort in front of St Mary De Castro Church on the Â鶹´«Ã½ campus

The one year course, which is co-ordinated by the Centre International d’Etude du Sport (CIES) and supported by football’s world governing body FIFA, involves students dedicating a term of study at Â鶹´«Ã½’s  (ICSHC) before also spending a term at both the SDA Bocconi School of Management in Milan, Italy, and Switzerland’s University of Neuchâtel.

The FIFA Master is regarded as one of the world’s best sports management courses and earlier this month it was named by Sports Business International as

Assessment criteria such as careers after graduation, student satisfaction, course intake diversity, analysis of networking opportunities and wider university partnerships were all used by Sport Business to produce the final global course ranking results.

Despite the challenges of global travel during the COVID pandemic, students have arrived in Leicester from the Americas, Europe, Australasia, Africa and Asia to study the course.

FIFA Master students (left to right) Romaney Pinnock, Geneviève Favre-savoie and Emmi Zoccolan at the Trinity House welcome reception

As part of their welcome, they were met by Â鶹´«Ã½ Vice-Chancellor, Professor Katie Normington and International Olympic Committee Executive Member, Professor Denis Oswald, who is President of the FIFA Master course Scientific Committee.

While at Â鶹´«Ã½, students will learn about the history of sports and discuss topical issues and challenges the sports industry has faced.

Professor Martin Polley, Director of the ICSHC at Â鶹´«Ã½ and Co-Scientific Director of the FIFA MA, said: “It’s always a great pleasure to welcome a new class of FIFA MA students. They are always so talented and enthusiastic, and all of us in ICSHC enjoy working with them on sport’s historical and cultural features.

“We always learn a lot from them too, as they bring experiences and insights from so many different places to their studies.”

Fellow Co-Scientific Director, Professor Pierre Lanfranchi, put it simply: “The FIFA Master is Â鶹´«Ã½ at its best”.

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During their stay in Leicester, the class will also take in field trips to world famous sporting institutions such as Lord’s cricket ground, Wimbledon, Leicester City FC, Manchester United FC, Manchester City FC, The PFA and the National Football Museum.

James Panter, who is the FIFA Master Module Officer for Â鶹´«Ã½, added: “After an extremely busy summer preparing for the arrival of the new class with so many ongoing restrictions, it is fantastic to finally be able to welcome everybody to Leicester for the start of a new academic year”.

Along with the Sports Business International award, the ICSHC has just marked 25 years of consistently taking the importance of sports history and its impact on society to a global audience while seeing hundreds of students pass through its doors.

An annual report has been published to mark the occasion which you can read here

Students and staff, including the Â鶹´«Ã½ Vice-Chancellor, President of the CIES and President of the FIFA Master Scientific Committee

The members of the ICSHC have published  a myriad of books and journal articles covering many sporting disciplines, from rugby, boxing and cycling to sporting mega-events like the World Cup and Olympics and Paralympics.

Most recently Dr Heather Dichter, an Associate Professor of Sport Management and Sport History at the ICSHC, saw her book Soccer Diplomacy: International Relations and Football since 1914,shortlisted for the prestigious Telegraph Sports Book of the Year award.

There were also celebrations this summer when Emma Twigg, who studied the FIFA Master at Â鶹´«Ã½ in 2016, claimed gold for New Zealand in this summer’s Tokyo Olympic Games.

Emma won gold in the woman's single scull rowing. She  previously spoke to the university just before the Olympics about how she regularly trained on the River Soar, at the bottom of the Â鶹´«Ã½ campus. 

Previous alumni who studied at Â鶹´«Ã½ have been inspirational figures in their chosen line of sport and attended the FIFA Masters to go on and lead institutions around the globe.

They include former Manchester United FC midfield ace, Park Ji-Sung, Sanaa Darawsha, who was the first female Arab Muslim referee to officiate in the Israeli football league, and Eduardo Tavares, who was previously responsible for Chelsea’s loan players - such as Tammy Abraham and Mason Mount.

Increasing numbers of FIFA Masters alumni are also entering into non-profit organisations, charities and sports development work to help minorities and people in areas normally deprived of sport.