Discover what the course entails and meet your host presenter, Richard Denton. Richard is the Academic Director at the Johan Cruyff Institute and has worked with multiple Football organisations across his career, including The FA, UEFA, Vitesse Arnhem among others.

Prior to each Module, students are challenged with a number of warm up questions.

The first module explores the wider sports and football industry before taking a closer look at the football ecosystem. What’s the story behind the big headlines and dynamics that shapes the industry in a daily basis? 

An easy start to test and confirm your understanding of the football landscape.

In an industry that is generally judged by results on the pitch and trophies in the cabinet, how important is the vision or mission of a sports organisation? And what can we conclude from those in football who have a clear purpose that goes beyond the football pitch? 

Building a durable brand is more than just a crest on the football shirt. Sometimes a new left-back or creative midfielder takes precedence over investing in the cultural legacy of the football club.

A dream combination for many people looking to work in the football industry. Do the marketing principles apply to football brands just like other consumer brands? One view is the football product markets itself and does not need a lot of marketing investment to sell tickets, merchandise of pay per view subscriptions. 

This module takes a closer look at the assets and ecosystem to consider where a marketing focus can be applied.

From the outside the football industry is most recognizable by the players, managers, derby matches and media celebrities. Behind the scenes lies a complex web of stakeholders asserting their influence to deliver the ‘football experience’, sometimes working collectively and other times simply to maintain a delicate status quo. 

This module explores the roles of key stakeholders and how they contribute to the management and governance of the game.

Football is a massive global community comprising many different segments. Despite a common passion for the ‘beautiful game’ fans, followers, viewers, and players all have different interests and needs. The internet and technology may have distributed football to the corners of the globe but there is no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to engaging and monetizing the football market. 

Without market segmentation there would be limited growth in the football industry.

Nearly everyone working in the football industry today is grateful for the evolution of broadcast media in the last 30 years. Whilst the scale and reach of broadcast media and platforms allow billions to consume football content daily, the creation and distribution business model remains consistent. At the end of the day, football needs ‘eyeballs’ to generate rights fees from networks, advertisers, sponsors and subscribers. 

Understanding and getting the basics in place is critical to success for the professional game.

Another critical revenue source for the sports and football industry. Elite clubs and international tournament organizers such as FIFA and UEFA are fortunate to generate significant revenue from broadcast media. For many clubs this is not a given and they are dependent upon other sources such as sponsorship. 

This module takes a look at the origins of sponsorship, key characteristics and how it has evolved into a dynamic and valuable element of commercial activities across the football industry.

The matchday experience is the highlight of the week for millions of fans and supporters going to the stadium to watch their team play a live match. This module features a combination of theory and practice concerning the customer journey before, during and after the live match. 

Which activities can be enriched to ensure football fans enjoy a memorable day out and become long term customers of the club? Increasing the value of the fan experience also increase the potential economic value for clubs and other suppliers associated with the match day experience.

Federations, leagues, tournament organizers and clubs are focused on marketing their brands, products, and services daily. Ultimately these activities need to deliver conversion into revenue from tickets, hospitality, memberships, business clubs, sponsor activations, social media, fan experiences, community engagement, fund raising etc. 

These modules look at steps that can be taken to adopt a more holistic approach as opposed to marketing each activity on a case-by-case basis.

We leave one of the most important topics to the final two modules that are combined. What is football without the fans? Understanding the behaviour of fans and how to deliver physical and digital activities that allows each fan or fan segment to experience football the way they
want. 

We take a look at key factors that can increase or decrease levels of engagement and some current examples of fan engagement and developing longer term partnerships with fans. With more platforms, channels and content than ever before, devising a strategy that reflects the history, vision and performance of your club is not an easy task. Well, hopefully a little easier once you have viewed this presentation.