Vincent Schatzmann, General Secretary of CIES, assesses the challenges and opportunities facing the sports leaders of tomorrow.
From shifting consumer behaviours to sustainability trends and technological innovations, the evolving nature of sport ensures the industry never stays still for long.
The tools required to equip executives of tomorrow, therefore, are changing – and Vincent Schatzmann, general secretary of CIES, a leading institution in sports research and education, is acutely aware of this fact.
Schatzmann has helped to spearhead a series of changes in recent years at Switzerland-headquartered CIES – the home of the FIFA Master programme – as it influences and adapts to shifts in the sports ecosystem. However, its core purpose remains the same as it continues to strive to provide a broad range of academic and executive programmes that put all students in the best position to move forward in the sports industry.
Consumption habits
While the courses represent significant shifts away from the field of play, they must also be cognisant of changes in between the white lines. Format changes that have led to the growth of Twenty20 cricket over the past two decades, for example, have been shaped by the audience – and whilst bold new ideas may not always be universally welcomed, there are undeniable opportunities for sport’s future leaders and decision-makers who are willing to be creative in embracing new ways of thinking.
Schatzmann said: “I think that the way in which sport is consumed will represent a huge challenge in the coming years. From the consumption of sport as a part of our daily activities, to sport as a spectacle, the different stakeholders involved in sport will have to reinvent themselves.
“Specifically, in terms of consuming the sporting spectacle, sports organisations will have to face up to a new way of consuming sporting feats and the images that accompany them. The format, rules or duration of competitions could be impacted in response to this new situation, and sport organisations will have to adapt at the risk of losing valuable consumers and future participants.
“Already today, new actors, mainly from the private industry or from the sport sponsorship, have understood this paradigm shift. They have begun to implement strategies and develop parallel competition circuits, outside the famous traditional European sports pyramid.” Schatzmann added.
FIFA Master
It is now almost a quarter of a century since CIES launched its flagship programme, the FIFA Master – International MA in Management, Law and Humanities of Sport, in 2000. So much has changed in that time; but the primacy of the programme has not. Indeed, by evolving in parallel with the changing landscape, the one-year postgraduate course has been ranked as Europe’s leading course by SportBusiness no fewer than 11 times.
The programme combines top-class academic teaching and practical case studies supplemented by guest lecturers and field visits. It comprises three modules, which are all taught in English by experts at three different European universities – Leicester (UK), Milan (Italy) and Neuchâtel (Switzerland).
CIES also has the FIFA/CIES International Programme in Sport Management which is a diploma course delivered by 18 different partner universities around the world.
CIES and its academic partners review the content of their programmes annually to take account of developments in sport and trends in the job market. For example, in recent years, it has introduced new courses on technology and innovation, and reinforced topics such as inclusion through sport and corporate social responsibility.
On the executive side, CIES closely works with football’s global governing body FIFA to develop and coordinate specific programmes for football executives and administrators, such as football lawyers or staff of FIFA Member Associations. These programmes include the FIFA Diploma in Sports Law, FIFA Football Executive Programmes for Member Associations, FIFA The Next 90 Programme and CIES Intrapreneurship for the Sports Industry Programme.
AI: Ally or enemy?
While changing times mean inevitable amendments to the syllabus, methods of teaching also develop. Back in 2000, internet access was far from a certainty for all students; now the world is at their fingertips.
Furthermore, the growth of artificial intelligence promises to add a fresh dimension to education’s foundational pillars, as well as everyday life.
“We are currently seeing the rapid growth of AI technology in society,” Schatzmann said. “These developments are likely to change the way in which we access and consume information, and knowledge more broadly.
“Universities and other education programme providers will, therefore, be directly impacted by these developments, and particularly in terms of knowledge assessment. It will be interesting to see what path these ‘knowledge-providing institutions’ will take in adapting to these challenges and finding out if these new technologies are an ‘ally’ rather than ‘an enemy’ of learning and knowledge assessment.”
Attracting New Talent
As well as changes in teaching and subject matter, the last two decades have been notable for a diversification of students enrolling with CIES and those choosing a career in the sports business. Since the 1990s, the industry has become more professional, more complex and more global, leading to an influx of new ideas and executives from outside sport.
Schatzmann describes an “evolution” of increasingly specialised professions in the sports industry in the face of new business challenges. Gone are the days of sport being led simply by enlightened and enthusiastic amateurs. On this point, Schatzmann believes it is important that the industry continues to attract people with the calibre to meet the complex demands that will present themselves in the decades to come.
“Today, as in the traditional private industry sector, the world of sport is looking for its own talent and specific skills to meet its new challenges,” Schatzmann said.
“As a result, we see that the disciplines from which our students come from are increasingly more varied. As well as the traditional lawyers and economists, we are seeing the greater emergence of engineers, data specialists and communication specialists.
“Women are also much better represented in our programmes, clearly demonstrating that the sports industry is no longer just a male domain. In view of the above, the future of sport is of a much greater diversity of people, which is an obvious asset for the sector.”
