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Birkbeck Sport Business Centre / Seminars and conferences / The Business of Sport Seminar Series

The Business of Sport Seminar Series

Convenor: Sean Hamil

The Business of Sport Seminar Series runs weekly in term time on Wednesday evenings at 6pm unless otherwise stated. It is designed to provide a forum for debate on key management challenges facing the sports industries amongst academics researching the sector, professional managers in the industry, and students on the MSc Sports Management & the Business of Football programme.

Please note that the Business of Sport Seminar Series operates under strict Chatham House Rules i.e. there can be no external reporting of the presentation or discussion without the express permission of the speaker.

Details of future seminars in the programme can be found below and on our news page.

Future Seminars

Details of the Business of Sport Seminar Series for the new academic year will be announced in September.

Recent Seminars

Birkbeck Sport Business Centre

Birkbeck Business Week Event: Getting More Businesslike about the Management and Business of Sport

Wednesday 30 June, 6.15pm
Main Building, Birkbeck College, University of London, Torrington Square, Basement Lecture Theatre B33

Registration required: Please email bizweek@bbk.ac.uk if you wish to attend or contact Sean Hamil at s.hamil@bbk.ac.uk for further details.

Followed by drinks reception.

Roundtable Panel

With Portsmouth FC becoming the first Premier League to enter financial adminstration since the League's foundation in 1992, and both Manchester United and Liverpool both the subject of recent media speculation regarding the medium term sustainability of their financial business models, in this roundtable discussion the question is posed:

Is the time now right for a major English club to transform itself into the FC Barcelona Mutual Ownership model?

The three roundtable panellists are:

Brian Burgess, Director, Brentford FC (Lionel Road) Ltd.
David Coulter, Deputy Chief Executive, Co-operatives UK
Sean Hamil, Co-Director, Birkbeck Sport Business Centre.

The London Launch of the: Governance Guide for Turkish Football Clubs

Monday 7th June 2010 at 6pm

The Birkbeck Sport Business Centre is hosting the London launch of the Governance Guide for Turkish Football Clubs in association with the report's authors, the Corporate Governance Association of Turkey (TKYD).

The Keynote speakers will be:

Dr Levent Bicakci, (former President of the Turkish Football Association).
Mr Dorukhan Acar, (TKYD Board member)
Mr Mete Ikiz, (TKYD Board member)
Sean Hamil, (Co-Director, the Birkbeck Sport Business Centre)

The TKYD has taken the initiative to support establishing model standards of corporate governance in Turkish football. TKYD's focus is to ensure good governance principles in the Turkish business community, and the Turkish football industry, with its estimated €750 million Euro market size as of the 2009/2010 season, has become a very tangible part of the Turkish business community.

In order to support and guide football club directors at all competitive levels a set of guidelines has been prepared and was launched in Istanbul in January 2010. The English version of this Governance Guide for Turkish Football Clubs is being shared with the international media and UK representatives, with participation of media representatives from Turkey, on the 7th June at Birkbeck College, University of London.

Read more about The Launch of the Governance Guide for Turkish Football Clubs.

The Launch of the Women’s Super League in March 2011:
A Catalyst for Another Decade of Progress for Women’s Football in England

Wednesday 19th May 2010 at 6pm

A Roundtable Discussion

Rachel Pavlou, National Women’s Football Development Manager at the Football Association. She has particular responsibility for managing the implementation of the FA Women's & Girls’ Football Strategy & National Game Strategy, managing the FA Girls’ Centres of Excellence programme of 52 licensed Centres and the National Project Officer, and supporting the development of the Women’s Super League.
Chair – Eric Golding, FA Registered Supply League Referee Assessor, Referee Assessor on the FA Women’s Premier League, Referee Co-ordinator at the Arsenal Ladies Centre of Excellence, Hon. Mentoring Officer at the London FA, Retired Referee and FA Registered Referee Tutor.
Lorraine Deschamps, FA Football for all Ambassador, Trustee of Sporting Equals, Football Association (FA) registered Tutor and level 5 Referee, also an Assistant Referee on the Women's Premier League.
Sarah Hobbs, represents the new generation of young female referees having taken up refereeing whilst a student at Richmond upon Thames College in 2005. She is currently a level 5 Referee and intends to seek Women’s FIFA registration within two years.

This roundtable event brings together a number of distinguished figures from English women’s football to discuss the prospects for the women’s game after a decade of successful expansion in grassroots participation and significant improvement in the quality of the elite women’s game. In particular, the panel will focus on the challenges ahead for the women’s game at a time of great optimism on the eve of one the most significant developments in the history of the women’s game, the launch of the FA Women’s Super League in March 2011.

Arsenal in the Community: 1985 – 2010

Wednesday 5th May 2010 at 6pm

Freddie Hudson and Samir Singh, Arsenal in the Community

In this seminar Community Manager, Freddie Hudson and Community Assistant, Samir Singh, will present an overview of the Club’s work in north London and beyond. They will outline the early years of Football in the Community as well as covering at the national and local level the policies and partners that have enabled Arsenal Football Club to work in a wide range of areas: sport, education, diversity, social inclusion, regeneration and charity.

Football Clubs’ Finances: Crisis and Player Salaries

Wednesday 28th April 2010 at 6pm

Dr Ángel Barajas, University of Vigo, Observatorio Económico del Deporte.

In this presentation Dr Barajas will outline the current financial situation in Spanish professional football analysing the relationships between the size of market, team payrolls, and team performance. He demonstrates the financial problems that are created by the football player labour market “arms race” that clubs are engaged in for recruiting the most talented players in order to achieve the best possible sporting outcome. He discusses the implications of the new Spanish Law for companies in financial distress that has implied that nine clubs are technically insolvent, and explains the reasons for this situation. He then discusses the context from which the recent threat of strike action by the Spanish Professional Football Players Union arose. He concludes by suggesting some possible remedies for the current difficult situation of Spanish football.

The Organisation of Belgian and Dutch Professional Football: the Place of “Stepping Stone” Leagues in the New Football League Hierarchy Post-Bosman

Wednesday 21st April 2010 at 6pm

Professor Trudo Dejonghe, Lessius Business College (Catholic University Leuven), Belgium

Football in the Low Countries (Belgium and the Netherlands) was, as in many other countries, introduced by British immigrants. Both countries share a lot of commonalities in football: the origin of the game was similar and they both stuck to the amateur principle until the introduction of professionalism in the 1970’s; their leading clubs enjoyed significant sporting successes in European football in the 1970s and 1980s, but are now perceived as “Stepping Stone” leagues for high quality developing players aiming to move to careers in the Big 5 leagues - England, France, Germany, Italy and France. In this presentation leading Belgian sports’ economist Professor Trudo Dejonghe analyses the place of Belgian and Dutch football in the modern European football environment.

Last modified: 02 July 2010