First module of Pro League Committee Certificates' "Executive Management" programme co
The first module of the Pro League Committee Football Certificates’ “Executive Management” Programme concluded on Tuesday. The Programme, organized by the PLC in collaboration with the UAE Football Association Academy, aims to qualify professional sports leaders.
Lectures in the final day of the module were dedicated to football club operations, including Human Resource and Staff Management, Corporate Social Responsibility, Marketing and Data Management, and Strategy, in addition to a tutorial on each topic.
Lecturer Ian Laithwaite presented examples of staff structures in football clubs, emphasizing the importance of having a solid approach to human resources, staff handbook, a programme of staff rewards, pension, healthcare, communicating with senior management group and annual appraisals.
The value of connection between clubs and the community was explained within the CSR framework, touching on engaging with fans from various age groups due to the role of football in inspiring youngsters to achieve. Laithwaite presented examples of CSR projects by English Premier League clubs which covered centralized projects funded by TV money, use of players to grow brand with good news stories, expanding into new territories through community work and use of international CSR to grow brand.
The lectures continued with a session on marketing and data management, where a presentation on ticketing and the importance of establishing a fan database, commercial data management, monthly revenue reports, stakeholder reporting detailing target objectives and those which have been achieved, basic values of operation and periodic reports. The session featured the presentation of examples of club financial reports, detailing gate receipts and players’ wages.
The final day of the module concluded with the strategy session, in which Laithwaite presented on short, medium and long-term strategies, focusing on the importance of planning in football, then touching on each category in more depth.
Next, participants were assessed through tutorials to evaluate the level of understanding of the material presented in the programme.
Participants will resume the “Executive Management” programme with the second module, “Facilities and Event Management” on January 28, 2019, followed by the “Governance and Finance” module on March 18, before the programme concludes with final reports presentation in April 2019.
In turn, the PLC Certificates’ “Marketing and Media” programme kicks-off on November 12 with the presence of media and marketing officials at professional clubs.
