Birkbeck Sport Business Centre

Player Nationality On The Pitch. What Origin In What Position?

Room 204
Clore Building
Torrington Square
Birkbeck College, University of London
London WC1E 7HX

Wednesday 16th May 2012 at 6pm

Given by: Dr Raffaele Poli, International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES), Football Observatory, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland

Synopsis

The CIES Football Observatory is the leading academic research centre for the study of the professional football players’ labour market. The Centre publishes two key annual analytical reports. Since 2006, the Annual Review has been the definitive reference publication for information on football labour market trends and the logics of squad formation in the five major European leagues. Now in its fourth year of publication, the Demographic Study offers an empirical analysis of the dynamics at work in 33 top division leagues in UEFA member association.

In this seminar, drawing on data from both publications and the work of the Football Observatory, Dr Raffaele Poli, head and co-founder of this international research group, presents the latest results on the distribution of expatriate players throughout Europe according to their origin and position on the pitch. Are all origins equally represented in all positions? Are some origins over- or under-represented in some positions? How to explain the discrepancies observed? His presentation then tackles the issue of the pitch productivity of players in the big-5 leagues according to their origin and position. Does player origin have an impact on pitch performance? Do expatriate players perform better than national ones? What are the differences according to the origin of expatriate players?

Reading

Poli, R.; Ravenel, L.; & Besson, R. (2006-2011 – 6 editions). CIES Football Observatory’s Annual Review. Neuchâtel : CIES.
Besson, R., Poli, R.; & Ravenel, L. (2009-2012 – 4 editions). CIES Football Observatory’s Demographic Study. Neuchâtel : CIES
Poli, R. “Labour Market Migration to the Five Major Leagues in European Football: The Impact on National Team Selection”. In : Walters, G. & Rossi, G. (August 2009). “Labour Market Migration in European Football: Key Issues and Challenges”. Birkbeck Sport Business Centre Research Paper Series, Volume 2, Number 2, August 2009. Chapter 3.

Biography

Raffaele Poli is chief researcher at the International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES), in Switzerland. He is the co-founder and director of CIES Football Observatory, an international research group made up of Swiss, French and Italian academics investigating the labour market of footballers. Since 2008, Raffaele Poli is lecturer at the Institute of geography of the University of Neuchâtel.

Contact Details

Email: raffaele.poli@cies.ch

For further details on this seminar series contact:

Sean Hamil
Department of Management
Birkbeck College
Malet Street
London
WC1E 7HX

Tel: 020-7631 6763
Email: s.hamil@bbk.ac.uk

The Italian Sport System: a General Framework

Room 103, 28, Russell Square

Birkbeck College, University of London
London WC1E 7HX

Thursday 3rd May, 2012, at 6pm

Given by: Cristiana Buscarini, Associate Professor of Strategy, Department of Health Sciences, University of Rome “Foro Italico”; and Dr Daniela Fruci, University of Rome “Foro Italico”

Synopsis

This presentation provides an overview of the operation of the Italian sport system.

In the Italian sport system the government does not directly intervene in the organization of sport. Instead, the over-arching organisational role is played by an intermediary body, the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI). CONI is an entity with a legal personality under public law and has its headquarters in Rome. It is directly influenced by the Italian governmental Presidency of the Council of Ministers, which has delegated responsibility for sport policy to an undersecretary of the Prime Minister. The financing of sport is guaranteed by the state through the Ministry of Economy and Finance. CONI, in turn, provides the bulk of the fees assigned to the functioning of sports organizations. Last year saw a significant decline in state funding for sport from Euros 450m to Euros 335m due to the global economic crisis.

In the second part of the lecture a specific element of the Italian sport system will be examined; the findings of research into the new collective bargaining agreement for professional football players in Italy and the effects on the labour costs will be presented. The presentation will examine the implications for collective bargaining in Italian football in the context of the introduction of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play initiative.

Reading

Buscarini C (2008), Le organizzazioni del settore dello sport: un quadro generale d’analisi e una possibile classificazione economico-aziendale, Rirea

Biography

Professor Cristiana Buscarini

Cristiana Buscarini is a specialist on the Italian sport system and on business ethics. In particular, she studies Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as it is applied in sport organizations. She is currently Associate Professor at the Department of Health Sciences at the University of Rome “Foro Italico”. She has published on a range of topics, including ‘A proposal of a Guideline for the editing of a Social Report for Italian National Sport Federations’, ‘The framework of the Italian Sport System’ and ‘ISO26000 for a sustainable path inside the firm”. Cristiana is involved in GBS (National Association for research of Social Report) and in SIMS (Italian Society of Sport Management).

Dr Daniela Fruci

Dr. Daniela Fruci gained her PhD in Labour Studies investigating the contribution of professional training to employee performance and development professionalism. Her thesis focused on professional training as a critical issue when dealing with contractual obligations. She studied for her undergraduate degree in Economics at University “La Sapienza” in Rome, then she specialized with a Master in Labour Relations and the Social Security System. With regard to her professional interests, these lie in the fields of human resources management and performance, as well as labor market flexibility. She qualified as a “Labour Consultant” skilled in the fields of social security, contribution and salary. She is guest lecturer on labor issues in s ports and sponsorship contracts, at University of Rome “Foro Italico”. Currently she is studying and assessing the impact of collective bargaining agreement on working condition for football players. She has recently completed a Master in Marketing Management specially focusing on employer branding.

Contact Details

Contact details: cristiana.buscarini@uniroma4.it

For further details on this seminar series contact:

Sean Hamil
Department of Management
Birkbeck College
Malet Street
London
WC1E 7HX

Tel: 020-7631 6763
Email: s.hamil@bbk.ac.uk

The role of Social Accountability for the Italian Sports Federations: A Proposal for Guidelines to Edit a Social Report

Room B30
Malet Street Building
Birkbeck College, University of London
London WC1E 7HX

Thursday 3rd May, 2012, at 10am
(For directions click here)

Given by: Cristiana Buscarini, Associate Professor of Strategy, Department of Health Sciences, University of Rome “Foro Italico”.

Synopsis

In this lecture an assessment is presented of the guidelines utilized by Italian Sport Federations in order to assist them in the Social Report of their social activities. The Social Report is a very important instrument which allows Federations:

to measure their operating efficiency;
to communicate to their wider stakeholders what the Federation does, aiming to encourage a democratic participation of its stakeholders;
to improve the internal efficiency and to promote the contribution of individuals, stimulating the abilities of people within the organisation;
to help the administration in monitoring the achievement of its goals and expectations of investors.

The presentation will describe also the experiences of social reporting in three Italian Sport Federations, and will also analyse the European Motorcycle Union Social Report. By way of conclusion, the details of the International Standard ISO26000, Guidance on Social Responsibility will be presented.

Reading

Buscarini C, Masia R (2011), La ISO 26000: nuovo processo di integrazione della Responsabilità Sociale per uno sviluppo sostenibile, in RIREA, sett./ ott.
Buscarini C, Mura R (2011), Nuovi sviluppi in tema di rendicontazione sociale nelle Federazioni Sportive Nazionali (FSN), in Azienda Pubblica, 4, 11.
European Motorcycle Union. 2009 Social Balance Sheet.

Biography

Contact Details

Contact details: cristiana.buscarini@uniroma4.it

For further details on this seminar series contact:

Sean Hamil
Department of Management
Birkbeck College
Malet Street
London
WC1E 7HX

Tel: 020-7631 6763
Email: s.hamil@bbk.ac.uk

Measuring sport sponsorships� efficiency: How could the value of sport sponsorships be increased?

Measuring sport sponsorships’ efficiency: How could the value of sport sponsorships be increased?

Room G01
The Clore Management Centre Building
Torrington Square
Birkbeck College, University of London
London WC1E 7HX

Thursday 26th April, 2012, at 6pm

(For directions click here)

Given by: Christoph Breuer, Full Professor, Institute of Sport Economics and Sport Management, German Sport University Cologne.

Synopsis

Sponsoring revenues are one of the main sources of income for football clubs worldwide (Deloitte). However, sponsorship research lacks a substantial understanding of how brand stimuli are processed in a sport media context (Cornwell 2008, 7; Crompton 2004, 37). The lack of such knowledge poses a serious threat to the future of sport sponsorship (O'Reilly & Madill 2009, 128). This paper tries to fill in this academic void and to analyze the drivers for sponsoring effectiveness and efficiency. Despite the fact that exposure is the most prevalent measure of sponsoring effectiveness (Shilbury et al. 2009, 270) this model goes beyond. It focuses on the impact of exposure on attention as well as attention on recall. The key focus lies on attention since the allocation of attention constitutes the crucial scarcity problem in an information overloaded world (Simon 1971) and as a consequence thereof the central economic problem in sponsoring.

Data comes from an experimental study consisting of 26 experiments, 315 participants and 78 treatments. Exposure is measured with an automatic brand tracking system, attention by eye-tracking, recall as well as moderating variables (social identity theory, cognitive consistency theory, ATP-model etc.) by questioning the participants. Classical and panel regression models show that (1) attention is determined by on-screen time, on-screen share and competitor influence and (2) recall is determined by glance duration, brand familiarity and purchasing behavior. It will be shown how league management, club management and marketing management of the sponsors used the model to optimize the allocation of attention and therefore the efficiency of sponsoring recall by the replacement of sponsoring vehicles and modification of sponsoring tools within the arena.

Reading

Breuer, C. & Rumpf, C. (2011). Memorization of sport sponsorship activities: the case of the German Bundesliga. Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal 1 (3), 284-293.
Breuer, C. & Rumpf, C. (2011). Sponsorship valuation. In L. E. Swayne & M. Dodds (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Sports Management and Marketing (Volume 4, pp. 1419-1422). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Breuer, C. & Rumpf, C. (2011). Sponsorship. In L. E. Swayne & M. Dodds (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Sports Management and Marketing (Volume 3, pp. 1394-1402). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications
Breuer, C. & Rumpf, C. (forthcoming). The viewer’s reception and processing of sponsorship information in sport telecasts. Journal of Sport Management

Biography

Prof. Dr. Christoph Breuer is Full Professor of Sport Management at German Sport University Cologne. Simultaneously he was Research Professor at German Institute of Economic Research (DIW Berlin), one of the biggest think tanks for economical issues in Germany, for six years. Dr. Breuer publishes widely in journals such as Applied Economics, Journal of Sport Economics, Journal of Sport Management, International Journal of Sport Finance, Sport Management Review and European Sport Management Quarterly.

In basic and applied research he works amongst others for big companies (e.g. German Railways – DB, Postbank, Toyota Germany, Deutsche Post), public authorities (e.g. European Commission, Federal Ministry of Finance), consultancies (e.g. Deloitte, Ernst & Young), sport confederations and federations (e.g. European Olympic Committee - EOC, German Olympic Sports Confederation - DOSB, German Football Association - DFB, German Equestrian Federation - FN) as well as foundations (Stiftung Deutsche Sporthilfe).

Contact Details

Contact details: breuer@dshs-koeln.de

For further details on this seminar series contact:

Sean Hamil
Department of Management
Birkbeck College
Malet Street
London
WC1E 7HX

Tel: 020-7631 6763
Email: s.hamil@bbk.ac.uk

Searching for the Roots of Football Fandom in the City of Trabzon

Room 151
Malet Street Building
Birkbeck College, University of London
London WC1E 7HX

Thursday 26th April, 2012, at 11.30am
(For directions click here)

Given by: Sevecen Tunç, PhD Candidate, Ataturk Institute for Modern Turkish History, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul.

Synopsis

Trabzon, located in the North East region of Turkey, is known as a football-mad city. The football passion of the city inhabitants attracts considerable attention not only from the media, but also recently from academia. However, the studies about the city’s football history are mostly focused on the period after the foundation of the Trabzonspor football club in 1967. The underlying reason behind this tendency is the “historic” footballing success of the team in the 1970s. However, due to this neglect of the pre-1967 period, many researchers fail to understand the objective and historical reasons for the close relationship between football and the city. Trabzon, which had been the leading port of the Ottoman Empire in the Black Sea region during the nineteenth century, lost its central position in the east in the early Republican period from the 1920s onwards. Trabzon, experiencing a sharp decline in its former preeminence, has instrumentalized football to restore its “civic pride”. Therefore, football did not only function just as a sport or a recreational activity, but it also acquired an important role of carrying the city to the national agenda.

Reading

Tunç, Sevecen (2009) Putting the City on the Map: A Social History of Football in Trabzon to 1967, MA Thesis, Boğaziçi University.

Biography

Sevecen is a PhD candidate at Ataturk Institute for Modern Turkish History at Boğaziçi University. Her main areas of study are football, gender, body politics and port cities. She is the author of the book “Mektepliler, Münevverler, Meraklılar: Trabzon’da Futbolun Toplumsal Tarihi” published by Iletişim Publications and co-editor of “Bizde Futbol: Kaptan Rıza’ın Anıları” published by TAMEV Publications in 2011.

Contact Details

Contact details: tuncsevecen@yahoo.com

For further details on this seminar series contact:

Sean Hamil
Department of Management
Birkbeck College
Malet Street
London
WC1E 7HX

Tel: 020-7631 6763
Email: s.hamil@bbk.ac.uk

The Organisation of the Sport System in Turkey: The SGM (Former GSGM), The Ministry of Youth and Sport and the relevant laws.

Room 151
Malet Street Building
Birkbeck College, University of London
London WC1E 7HX

Thursday 26th April, 2012, at 10am
(For directions click here)

Given by: Emir Güney, PhD Candidate, Director of Sports Law Research Center, Department of Law, Kadir Has University.

Synopsis

Turkey has a two-fold sport system. On the one side, football is governed by its own fully autonomous federation which is also considered as the only professional sport in Turkey. On the other side, the rest of the sports, which are considered amateur, are governed by the SGM (Sports General Directorate) which is the management body of the Ministry of Sports and Youth. Turkey is also a unique country when it comes to sports governance. It is the only country in the world that has separate laws established to govern sports bodies and even for only one sport, football. For example, in 2011 the Supreme Court of Turkey had to overrule an arbitration clause in the law of the establishment of the football federation in order to make the law consistent with the Turkish Constitution. In this presentation, Emir Güney explains the organisation of the sport system in Turkey, illustrates its unique features, and then presents a critique of its constitutional foundations.

Biography

Emir is currently the director of Sports Law Research Center at Kadir Has University in Istanbul, Turkey. He is also a PhD candidate on Sports Management at Marmara University. His main areas of study are the organisation of sport bodies and the structure of football supporters’ organisations. The Sports Law Research Center has three main areas of study: Sports Law, Sports Management and Sports Media. Beginning from April 2012 the name of the center will change to the Sports Studies Research Center and the study areas will expand accordingly. Sports Economics, Sports Sociology, Sports History will be some of the new additions to the research topics.

Kadir Has University Sports Law Research Center website

Contact Details

Contact details: emir.guney@khas.edu.tr

For further details on this seminar series contact:

Sean Hamil
Department of Management
Birkbeck College
Malet Street
London
WC1E 7HX

Tel: 020-7631 6763
Email: s.hamil@bbk.ac.uk

The Governance of Turkish Football: The Council, the Board and the Committees

Room G01
The Clore Management Centre
Birkbeck College, University of London
London WC1E 7HX
Wednesday 25th April, 2012, at 6pm

(For directions click here)

Given by: Emir Güney, PhD Candidate, Director of Sports Law Research Center, Department of Law, Kadir Has University

Synopsis

Starting in the late 20th century, Turkish football has become a major player in European football. Both the club teams and the national teams of all levels started to perform to a high level in UEFA and FIFA competitions, challenging major teams from England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France. For example Galatasaray SK won the UEFA Cup in 2000, the national team finished third in the South Korea & Japan FIFA World Cup in 2002, and again finished third in the Austria-Switzerland UEFA Euro 2008 tournament. These were major achievements for Turkish football. But between 2002 and 2008 Turkey could not qualify for any major international tournament and missed out on qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and 2012 UEFA European Championships. What is the reason behind this instability? The answer to this question is multi-faceted. The main answer lies within the question. It is the ‘instability’ of the governance bodies in Turkish football that prevents the creation of a strong football base on which to build a solid foundation. In this presentation, Emir Güney will present and outline the organisation of Turkish Football and its governance methods, and then present a critical assessment of how it might be reformed.

Reading

Şenel, Tolga (2006) A Strategic Review of Turkish Football Governance, Unpublished MSc Thesis, University of London Birkbeck College

Biography

Kadir Has University Sports Law Research Center website

Contact Details

Contact details: emir.guney@khas.edu.tr

For further details on this seminar series contact:

Sean Hamil
Department of Management
Birkbeck College
Malet Street
London
WC1E 7HX

Tel: 020-7631 6763
Email: s.hamil@bbk.ac.uk

Representing Players in Sport: Bargaining for A Fair Deal for Athletes in an Olympic Year

Roundtable Discussion – Tuesday 27th March 2012, 6pm – 8pm

Birkbeck College, University of London
Clore Management Centre Building: B01 Lecture Theatre
Torrington Square
London WC1E 7HX
(For directions click here)

(Followed by Drinks Reception – 8pm-9pm)

Live video stream

This event has now taken place, so the live stream is no longer available.

Host Partners

Birkbeck College, University of London (Sean Hamil) & the Educational Sports Forum (Alan Irwin)

Speakers

Hosts

Sean Hamil, Birkbeck College Sport Business Centre
Alan Irwin, Educational Sports Forum

Debate Chair

Andy Harvey, Department of Psychosocial Studies, Birkbeck College, University of London; consultant to the FIFPro football players’ union.

Panel

Tony Higgins, FIFPro, the World Football Players Union
Walter Palmer – UNI-Global Union / European Elite Athletes Association
Barry McGuigan - Founder, The Barry McGuigan Boxing Academy

Synopsis

There is a popular stereotype, drawing on the media portrayal of elite sports personalities, that professional athletes live privileged lives by way of comparison with the rest of the working population. It is certainly the case that a small minority of elite athletes, by virtue of their extraordinary talent, have been successful in generating significant incomes in a context in which they have been directly responsible for generating even higher revenues for their employers and associated businesses (e.g. promoters, television broadcasters, corporate sponsors etc.).

However, the working reality for most professional athletes is very far from the popular stereotypes. Most athletes are comparatively modestly paid, and have very insecure employment conditions despite the enormous personal and professional commitment required to engage in a career as a professional athlete. It is also the case that, outside of professional football in Europe and in North American professional sports, most player representative organisations are not accorded full representative status in the stakeholder engagement processes of their sports. (Indeed it is an irony that is in the most commercially orientated sports in the world – North America’s MLB [baseball], MLS [soccer], NBA [basketball], NFL [American football] and NHL [ice hockey]; and professional elite football in England – that player unions enjoy the best established collective bargaining rights on behalf of their members). This situation has prompted the foundation of a federation of world player associations in Nyon, Switzerland, in November 2011, at the World Athletes Summit at UNI Global Union head office in Nyon - the “Nyon Declaration” ¹ .

Finally, it is the case that across sport there are countless examples of exploitation of young athletes whether it be via illegal trafficking of minors in football ², or in the exploitation and under-achievement of young boxers which led to the establishment of the Barry McGuigan Academy ³.

In this Olympic year this roundtable event brings together three leading figures from representative and development bodies for elite athletes – Tony Higgins, former Hibernian (Scottish Premier League) player and Executive Board member of the European Division of the world football players’ union FIFPro ⁴; Barry McGuigan, former World Featherweight Boxing Champion and founder of the Barry McGuigan Boxing Academy; and Walter Palmer, former Utah Jazz and Dallas Mavericks NBA player and General Secretary of EU Athletes (the European Elite Athletes Association) – to discuss:

The current state of employment conditions for sportspeople.
The place of players’ associations in fighting for the rights of sportspeople.
The need to integrate sport and education to improve the ‘dual career’ employment prospects of young sportspeople.
Why it is essential to involve player representative organisations in the reform of the governance of sport as equal stakeholders.

Critically, the panel will discuss how the organised voice of elite players can be more effectively incorporated into the governance of global sport to improve the quality of the sporting environment for all – players, participants, administrators, commercial and public sector partners etc.

Biographies

Tony Higgins

Tony is an executive board member of FIFPro Division Europe, the world football players’ union. He was formerly the chairman of the Scottish Professional Footballers’ Association (SPFA). During his career as a professional in Scotland he played for Hibernian, Partick Thistle and Greenock Morton. He is a regular commentator on Scottish football on BBC Scotland’s Sportscene programme.

Walter Palmer

Walter is the General Secretary of the European Athletes Association, and General Secretary of the Union Basketteurs d’Europe (UBE). EU Athletes is an international federation of trade unions for athletes that was founded in 2007. EU Athletes currently has 30 member organisations representing approximately 25,000 athletes. The UBE is a federation of European basketball players’ unions whose membership includes the players’ unions of Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia and Spain. Duties of the UBE general secretary include representing the UBE before the European Union and other European sports governing bodies and coordinating organisational and legal activities. Walter is a graduate of Dartmouth College in the United States (BA History) and a former professional basketball player in the NBA in the United States where he played for the Utah Jazz and Dallas Mavericks.

Barry McGuigan

Barry McGuigan is widely regarded as one of the best boxers of his generation. As an amateur he won a multitude of titles; at the age of 17 he took the gold medal at the 1978 Commonwealth Games and as a professional he won the British, European and World Titles. In June 1985, a television audience of twenty million watched him became Featherweight Champion of the World by defeating Eusebio Pedroza. His extraordinary performance later captured him another title of BBC Sports Personality of the Year. McGuigan was voted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 2000 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2005.

For almost 20 years Barry has been commentating and writing on boxing and has developed into one of the leading figures in the sport. He has been writing a successful weekly column for the Daily Mirror for over 10 years, considered to be the No1 boxing column each week. He has commentated throughout the world; in the USA for Prime Network, in Asia for Star TV, in Europe with Euro Sport and in the UK for BBC, Sky, Screen Sport, Setanta, Wire TV and ITV.

In November 2009 McGuigan launched the inaugural “Barry McGuigan Boxing Academy”. The intention of the academy is to use the skill and discipline required in boxing to promote and deliver an environment where young people can excel in their academic and sporting goals; positively encouraging students who feel disengaged to stay in or return to education and help raise standards in post 16 academic achievement. A great success, it is moving into two further colleges in September 2010 with a number of additional colleges showing a keen interest.

Drinks Reception – 8pm-9pm

The roundtable debate will be followed by a drinks reception in the basement foyer area of the Clore Management Centre.

For further details on this seminar series contact:

Sean Hamil
Department of Management
Birkbeck College
Malet Street
London
WC1E 7HX

Tel: 020-7631 6763
Email: s.hamil@bbk.ac.uk

Uniglobalunion.org (18th November, 2011). Independent Voice For World Athletes Established. Uniglobalunion.org. Retrieved on the 12th December, 2011
UEFA.com. (13th March, 2009). Strategy Council agrees minors’ resolution. UEFA.com. Retrieved on the 12th December, 2011
Barry McGuigan Academy (2011). Barrymcguigan.org. Retrieved on the 14th December, 2011
For details of the campaigning positions of FIFPro on key issues facing athletes see: fifpro.org (2011). FIFPro Opinion. Fifpro.org. Retrieved on the 14th December, 2011

How and why are the Danish FA implementing a new concept called Football Fitness?

Lankaster Lecture Theatre (University College London)
Medawar Building,
Malet Place (off Torrington Place),
London WC1

Wednesday 28th March 2012 at 6pm
(For directions click here)

Given by: Laila Ottesen, Associate Professor, Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences, University of Copenhagen.

Synopsis

Voluntary sport organisations and associations in Denmark are under pressure to contribute to the new health-related and welfare political challenges of the Danish state. In an interdisciplinary collaboration over the last six years, researchers at the Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences (IFI), University of Copenhagen, have conducted research on recreational football and have shown that this can be an effective means for health promotion. (Krustrup, Bangsbo & Dvorak 2010; Krustrup, Nielsen & Ottesen, 2010). The Danish Football Association (DBU) has chosen to apply this new knowledge of football as health promotion through a new concept “Football Fitness”, offering new segments of users football training in a more ‘fitness’ based format. This lecture will present the sociological research behind the implementation of the Football Fitness concept.

Reading

Ottesen, Laila (2010) The development of social capital through soccer and running: The experience of a 16 weeks intervention programme for inactive, inexperienced women. (with R. Jeppesen and B. Krustrup). In: Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports. Vol.20. supplement 1, pp. 118-131.

Biography

Laila is a specialist on Danish sport, gender in sport and social capital development within sport. She is currently Associate Professor at the Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences at the University of Copenhagen. She has published widely in both Danish and English on a range of topics, including ‘Sports participation, gender and the welfare state’, ‘Gender relations in Scandinavian sport organizations’ and ‘The autonomy of sports: negotiating boundaries between sports governance and government policy in the Danish welfare state’. Recently, Laila has been involved in a very large, international research programme on ‘Soccer and Health’, involving more than 50 researchers from seven countries.

Contact Details

Contact details: lottesen@ifi.ku.dk

For further details on this seminar series contact:

Sean Hamil
Department of Management
Birkbeck College
Malet Street
London
WC1E 7HX

Tel: 020-7631 6763
Email: s.hamil@bbk.ac.uk

Branding in English Sport: A Series of Missed Opportunities?

Lankaster Lecture Theatre (University College London)
Medawar Building,
Malet Place (off Torrington Place),
London WC1
Thursday 22nd March 2012 at 6pm
(For directions click here)

Given by: Alex Fynn, Consultant to the Sport Industry

In this presentation Alex Fynn will first explain why effective branding is a pre-requisite for success in sport. He will then, utilising examples from North American sports' competitions, compare and contrast the commercial branding strategies of the NFL (the National Football League), and the NBA (the National Basketball Association), and MLB (Major League Baseball) with those of the Premier League, the UEFA Champions League, the Football League and the ECB (the England & Wales Cricket Board). He will point up what he believes are the missed opportunities of major English sporting institutions like the FA (Football Association), the PFA (Professional Footballers Association), and the RFU (Rugby Football Union). He will also examine the importance of branding to specific football clubs, examining Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea and Manchester City in particular.

He will then go on to examine the phenomenon of celebrity branding. He will pose the following questions: (1) is David Beckham truly a brand, or is he just a serial endorser?; (2) how does he rate against his former colleague Eric Cantona, and against the true international mega-celebrity brands of Michael Jordan and Ayrton Senna?

Reading

Fynn, A. & Whitcher, K. (September, 2011). Arsènal: The Making of a Modern Superclub. London: Vision Sports Publishing. 3rd edition.
Fynn, A. & Guest, L. (1994). Out of Time: Why Football Isn’t Working. London: Simon & Schuster.

Special Offer: The new edition of Alex’s book, “Arsènal: The Making of a Modern Superclub”, is available for £6.99 – including UK P&P (RRP is £8.99.)

To take advantage of this offer you need to order the book from the publisher’s website at www.visionsp.co.uk and type the promotion code Fynn into the Promotion Code box on the Shopping Basket & Checkout page - WWW.VISIONSP.CO.UK

Biography

Alex Fynn is a well-known consultant to the sports’ industry who has also written extensively on the subject of the football business. His clients have included Arsenal, Celtic, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur football teams, as well as the Football League and the Football Association. Through his work he has been influential in the formation of both the English Premier League and the UEFA European Champions League. Previously Alex was a director of the well-known advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, latterly as vice-chairman. He was responsible for a number of major clients including Procter & Gamble. Throughout his career Alex has acted as an advisor on the negotiation of the sale of TV broadcasting rights for a number of clubs and federations including the FA, the Football League, the RFU and the British Athletics Federation.

Contact Details

Twitter: Follow Alex @AlexFynn1

For further details on this seminar series contact:

Sean Hamil
Department of Management
Birkbeck College
Malet Street
London
WC1E 7HX

Tel: 020-7631 6763
Email: s.hamil@bbk.ac.uk

The Performance of Football Club Managers: Skill or Luck?

Lankaster Lecture Theatre (University College London)
Medawar Building,
Malet Place (off Torrington Place),
London WC1

Wednesday 14th March 2012 at 6pm

(For directions click here)

Given by: Tom Markham, PhD in Football Finance Candidate at the ICMA Centre, Henley Business School, University of Reading.

Synopsis

Motivated by the much larger literature on the identification of mutual fund manager skill, this paper proposes the adoption of a bootstrapping methodology to evaluate the performance of football club managers. The bootstrap is a technique that is highly suited to the problem at hand since the distribution of league points accumulated, and consequently of the estimated model’s residuals, are highly non-normal making inferences from more conventional parametric approaches problematic. We first use a specification that models managerial skill as a fixed effect and examines the relationship between the number of points earned in league matches and the club’s expectation, wage bill, transfer spending, and the extent to which they were hit by absent players through injuries, suspensions or unavailability. We next implement a bootstrapping approach to generate a simulated distribution of average points that could have taken place after the impact of the manager has been removed. To synopsise this simply, we analyse the success of Premier League managers over five seasons (based on league points accumulation) using the bootstrapping technique whilst taking into account a club’s spending habits and player availability. The findings suggest that there are a considerable number of highly skilled managers but also several who have significant ‘negative skill.’

The model examines managerial performance on a match by match basis. Its results divulge that seven managers remained in employment at clubs when they could have been dismissed due to substandard performance during the five season sample period between 2004/05 and 2008/09. The model can also pinpoint the exact date on which they may have been sacked. Conversely, five other managers were sacked erroneously during the same period. The exciting aspect of the model is that the approach to evaluating managers can be conducted in real time thus allowing a club to monitor its manager’s performance on a weekly basis. It is also envisaged that the methodology is transferable to other professional team sports where a manager or head coach plays an integral role.

Reading

Research working Paper
FT Coverage
Articles forthcoming in: FC Business and Sporting Intelligence

Biography

Tom Markham

Tom is a specialist on the topic of football finance. A qualified accountant and former foreign exchange trader, he has recently collaborated on projects with national associations, clubs, agencies and sports consultancies. Tom holds an MBA in Football Industries (with distinction) from the University of Liverpool and is currently researching for a PhD in Football Finance at Henley Business School’s ICMA Centre. His recent research has focused on: the optimum time to sack a manager, the effect managerial turnover has on football club valuation and the optimal method to value a football club.

Tom has presented at the European Conference on Sport Economics, International Conference on Sports Economics, Play The Game and the Science + Football conference as well as delivering guest lectures on the subject of football finance at the University of Liverpool, Birkbeck - University of London, FIFA Master Programme and UCFB. Tom also frequently provides expert media analysis pertaining to the business of football with his contributions featuring in 11 Freunde, FC Business, The Financial Times, The Times and BBC radio.

Contact Details

Contact details: t.markham@icmacentre.ac.uk

For further details on this seminar series contact:

Sean Hamil
Department of Management
Birkbeck College
Malet Street
London
WC1E 7HX

Tel: 020-7631 6763
Email: s.hamil@bbk.ac.uk

The Protection of Young Footballers - What is the Way Forward?

Lankaster Lecture Theatre (University College London)
Medawar Building,
Malet Place (off Torrington Place),
London WC1
Wednesday 7th March 2012 at 6pm

(For directions click here)

Given by: Jean-Claude Mbvoumin, Founder of Foot Solidaire; & Sam Potter, Filmmaker & Managing Director of Masnomis Ltd

Synopsis

In this presentation Jean-Claude Mbvoumin presents an overview of the work carried out by Foot Solidaire, an international NGO based in Paris.

Each year many school-age African boys come to Europe because they believe they have a contract with a professional football club. Unfortunately, huge numbers of them have been set up by false agents and end up living on the streets as illegal immigrants with no money and no means of sustaining themselves. Foot Solidaire tries to help young Africans who realise they have been cheated by false football agents or unceremoniously rejected by a club because their talents did not develop as expected.

Foot Solidaire estimates that in France alone, there are more than 7,000 young Africans living on the streets after failed attempts to play for a professional club.

This is not so much a problem in the United Kingdom; however, Premier League clubs indirectly contribute to the problem through the activities of their feeder clubs in Belgium, Switzerland and France.

Foot Solidaire is the only known international charity to date actively engaged in combating the trafficking of minors. It was originally funded as part of FIFA’s social responsibility agenda but FIFA has now withdrawn funding from the project.

The film Soka Afrika tracks two young men whose starkly differing passages make for a story that winds into and out of triumph, loneliness, accomplishment and anguish. The message of the film goes far beyond the story-line though, as it takes an intricate look at the issue of trafficking and the risks that aspiring footballers, particularly from Africa, face.

The purpose of this seminar is to highlight this highly sensitive topic and bring it to the fore of UK public consciousness.

Reading

FIFA Regulations on the Status & Transfer of Players
FIFA and CSR
Official website of Foot Solidaire (in French)
EU News & Policy Debate
Tackling Muscle Drain: Prof. Vladimir Andreff
Official Website of Soka Afrika
Official ESPN Review of Soka Afrika
View of British Press: The Guardian

Biographies

Jean-Claude Mbvoumin

Jean-Claude is a former Cameroonian international footballer who plied his trade in France for AS Beauvais and US Dunkerque. He arrived in France at the age of 20 and his experience as a young footballer in a foreign country allowed him to appreciate first-hand the plight of other young footballers who fell by the wayside. Upon retirement, he was determined to give something back and take a stance against the practices of rogue football agents. This led him to found in 2000, Foot Solidaire. He has since worked tirelessly and lobbied FIFA, UEFA, the ECA, the EU, the UN and other international organisations to raise awareness of the plight of young African footballers in Europe.

Sam Potter

Sam Potter was educated at Westminster School and then Magdalen College, Oxford, attaining a BA (Hons) in Physics. He worked for five years at HSBC Private Bank in both Geneva and London. Much of his tenure was spent attached to the funds of hedge funds department, where he helped to develop industry standards for data collection and reporting. Sam is presently a trustee on a charitable foundation whose many deeds include the recent founding of The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, as well as grants to human rights associations, educational institutions and more. In 2009 Sam co-founded Masnomis Ltd (an independent television and film production company) with Simon Laub, assuming the role of Managing Director.

Contact Details

Jean-Claude Mbvoumin - jcmbvoumin@footsolidaire.org
Sam Potter – sam@masnomis.com

For further details on this seminar series contact:

Sean Hamil
Department of Management
Birkbeck College
Malet Street
London
WC1E 7HX

Tel: 020-7631 6763
Email: s.hamil@bbk.ac.uk

Football Agents in the biggest five European football markets: An empirical research report

Lankaster Lecture Theatre (University College London)
Medawar Building,
Malet Place (off Torrington Place),
London WC1
Wednesday 29th February 2012 at 6pm

(For directions click here)

Given by: Dr. Giambattista Rossi, Research Fellow, Birkbeck Sport Business Centre

Synopsis

In this seminar presentation Giambattista Rossi presents the results of a study undertaken on behalf of the CIES Football Observatory, University of Neuchatel, on football agent activity in Europe. The detailed report reveals that the yearly turnover for football intermediaries in UEFA member national associations is around £400m. The study also highlights the great level of concentration in the player representation market: half of the big-5 league footballers are represented by 83 football agents or agencies.

Other key findings concern the demographic profile of licensed agents domiciled in the five biggest European football markets: England, Italy, Spain, Germany and France. A questionnaire survey carried out by the authors of the study, Raffaele Poli and Giambattista Rossi, shows that agents are on average aged 42. Only 3.4% of them are female.

71% of agents speak a foreign language at intermediary or above. Only 41% of licensed agents carry out the job full-time. The majority operate in other business sectors - primarily law and finance.

The study also shows that a minority of agents (46%) support their clients in personal care activities such as finding a house or flat, organizing travel, helping family members, etc. This result shows that the general view of agents “baby-sitting” their protégés does not correspond with reality. The former are above all busy in “spinning webs” of working relationships and brokering deals.

Only 42% of the players represented by the respondents of the survey are senior professionals. This indicates that most of the agents are mainly active in the search for young talent, in the hope of generating profit in the future from onward transfers. While promising players can also take advantage of this situation, the pressure that intermediaries may exert on them in this regard is a controversial issue.

The research also shows that collaboration between intermediaries is also a key aspect of the profession. Half of the agents directly represent players on behalf of colleagues. The main reason to enter into such partnerships is to introduce a player client into a specific national market. This reveals the crucial role played by agents in the setting up of transnational networks at a global level.

Sporting directors are clearly indicated as the most important business partners when placing players, followed by football managers. Almost 40% of agents have already represented at least one coach since starting their career. The great proportion of agents who manage the careers of both players and managers raises the question of conflicts of interest in the representation and transfer market.

The importance of this problem is even greater considering that more than 70% of respondents also assist clubs in buying, selling or scouting players. Moreover, 15% of licensed agents admitted owning or having owned shares in players’ transfer rights. All these figures reflect the existence of intricate situations and possible conflicts of interest. The report authors are now calling for more transparency in how player agents operated their business.

Reading

The full 82-page report may be downloaded for free from the CIES Football Observatory website
Worldfootballinsider.com (27th February, 2012). “Football Agents Rake in $536 Million a Year: Warning Over Third Party Ownerships”. Worldfootballinsider.com.

About the CIES Football Observatory

The CIES Football Observatory was set up in 2005 under the name of the Professional Football Players Observatory (PFPO). Since 2011, it is one of the cornerstones of the vast CIES Observatory project, dedicated to the statistical analysis of sport in all its diversity. As well as the realisation of two annual reports, the CIES Football Observatory regularly carries out mandates for various stakeholders of the football industry. Methodological rigor coupled with a deep knowledge of football guarantee high quality analyses at competitive rates. More information at www.eurofootplayers.org.

Biographies

Raffaele Poli

Raffaele Poli is the co-founder and director of the CIES Football Observatory. He holds a PhD in the human sciences from the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland) Franche-Comté (France). He is also scientific collaborator at the International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) of the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland) and Franche-Comté (France). As scientific collaborator at CIES, he is in charge of the Observatory’s general management, communication and strategic development.

Giambattista Rossi

Giambattista Rossi joined the Sport Business Centre in 2006 as PhD student. Previously, he completed a BSc in Economics at Catholic University of Sacred Heart in Milan and an MSc in Sport Studies at University of Stirling. In May 2008, he was responsible for co-organising the "Feet Drain" conference hosted by the Birkbeck Sport Business Centre that examined labour market migration in the football industry. In January 2011, he was funded with the Joao Havelange Research Scholarship awarded by the CIES (International Centre of Sport Studies) to research the activity of football player agents within the top five European football leagues. Giambattista's main research interest is labour markets in professional sports. In January 2012 he was awarded his PhD at Birkbeck College, University of London.

Contact Details

Raffaele Poli – raffaele.poli@unine.ch
Giambattista Rossi - lross01@mail.bbk.ac.uk

For further details on this seminar series contact:

Sean Hamil
Department of Management
Birkbeck College
Malet Street
London
WC1E 7HX

Tel: 020-7631 6763
Email: s.hamil@bbk.ac.uk

Is the Corporate Governance of World Sport in Crisis?

Lessons from the FIFA reform process: what can FIFA learn from the International Olympic Committee?

Lankaster Lecture Theatre (University College London)
Medawar Building,
Malet Place (off Torrington Place),
London WC1
Wednesday 22nd February 2012 at 6pm
(For directions click here)

Given by: Jens Sejer Andersen, International Director, Play the Game and the Danish Institute for Sport Studies

Synopsis

Jens Sejer Andersen is the founder, and now the International Director, of Play the Game, a Danish NGO established to provide a forum for informed and critical debate and dialogue on the critical issues facing sport. Starting with its first conference in Copenhagen in 1997, Play the Game has consistently offered a principled and rigorous forum where the most politically sensitive issues in sport – doping, corruption, poor governance, match fixing, political abuse, and the failure to mobilise ordinary people in the management of sport – can be debated openly. The 2011 Play the Game conference in Cologne, Germany, included the usual diverse range of presentations from stakeholders in the sport movement; for example long-time FIFA critic investigative reporter Andrew Jennings made his case for root & branch reform of FIFA, whilst former international director of FIFA, Jerome Champagne, for the first time since leaving FIFA outlined his vision for the future of FIFA to a public audience.

In this presentation Jens will first explain how he was inspired, through his original professional vocation as a young journalist covering sports stories, to establish Play the Game. To his amazement he found that the most important sport stories never appeared on the sport pages.

He will then go on to outline what he believes, drawing on the recent experience of Play the Game, are the most significant governance challenges facing the sport sector at this time. Notably, corruption scandals at FIFA, and at the international volleyball and handball federations, not only taint the image of sport, but threaten the very values sport claims to bring to society. He will argue that through match-fixing, doping and other forms of corruption organised crime is slowly but surely infiltrating sport.

Finally, he will present a critical assessment of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) governance reforms in the last decade triggered by its response to the 1998/1999 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics bidding scandal. He will then compare the IOC’s response to that of FIFA’s to the corruption allegations that have be-set football’s world governing body over the last decade culminating in the 2011 FIFA presidential elections and World Cup 2018 and 2022 bidding processes.

Video Interview with Jens Andersen

For those who were unable to attend Jens Andersen's presentation a 30 minute interview where Jens discusses teh key issues covered in his presentation can be viewed here:

Video Interview

Reading

Andersen, J. (16th February, 2012). A promising start for the villains of sport PlaytheGame.org. Retrieved on the 19th February 2012
Play the Game website
Danish Institute for Sport Studies website

Biography

Jens Sejer Andersen is a journalist and international director of the Play the Game initiative. From 1990-2003 Jens was editor-in-chief for the Danish Gymnastics and Sport Associations magazines. He organised the first international media seminar on sport and society in 1997 and has been responsible for leading the organisation of the bi-annual Play the Game conferences since then. He is a member of the Danish Institute for Sport Studies from 2004 until its merger with Play the Game in 2010. He has been an Editorial Board Advisor to the International Council for Sport Science and Physical Education since 2006.

Contact Details

Jens Sejer Andersen – jens@playthegame.org

For further details on this seminar series contact:

Sean Hamil
Department of Management
Birkbeck College
Malet Street
London
WC1E 7HX

Tel: 020-7631 6763
Email: s.hamil@bbk.ac.uk

The Future Development of the Paralympic Games

The Future Development of the Paralympic Games: From Stoke Mandeville (1948) to London (2012) and Beyond

Lankaster Lecture Theatre (University College London)
Medawar Building,
Malet Place (off Torrington Place),
London WC1

Wednesday 8th February 2012 at 6pm

(For directions click here)

Given by: Jose Gigante, Paralympic Games Coordinator with the International Paralympic Committee

Synopsis

In this presentation Jose Gigante presents an overview of the work of the world Paralympic Movement as we approach the 2012 Paralympic Games in London. He explains the factors that have informed its successful development to date, the challenges it faces, and outlines the Movement’s plans for the future organisation and expansion of Paralympic sport.

By way of further background; turning disabilities into abilities in over 6 decades, the Paralympic Movement has challenged itself and the perception of the public. Never before has it been so all encompassing creating change inside and outside of sport. From humble beginnings in 1944 in the UK’s Stoke Mandeville hospital through Dr Ludwig Guttman’s work with patients with spinal cord injuries, and then through the first Paralympic Games in Rome in 1960, the Paralympic Movement has grown to develop elite competitions for athletes with different types of disability groups in 26 sports both in Summer and Winter: increasing the number of athletes year by year; advancing to the next level of organisation; setting new standards and new goals with each Paralympic Games; following the clear vision of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC); striving to breakdown walls of prejudice and discrimination; changing perceptions by showcasing courage and determination; and seeking to motivate and educate through sport. Today the Paralympic Games are top and higher level competitions selling out venues and fascinating the public with the best possible performances.

The International Paralympic Committee was founded in 1989 and it is the global governing body of the Paralympic Movement. The IPC organizes the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games, and serves as the International Federation for nine sports, for which it supervises and co-ordinates the World Championships and other competitions. The vision of the future was detailed in the Strategic Plan 2011-2014 outlining the focus and priorities of the International Paralympic Committee for the following four years. This Strategic Plan aims to achieve the next step and ensure a sustainable development for the Paralympic Movement.

Reading

Biographies

Jose Gigante

Jose joined the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) in 2010 and works as Paralympic Games Coordinator for the Paralympic Games Department. This IPC department works in close collaboration with the London 2012, Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016 Paralympic Games Organising Committees in planning, coordination, knowledge transfer and support, among other activities. Jose holds a Sport Sciences & Physical Education degree from Universidad Politecnica de Madrid; and is also a former student of Birkbeck College, University of London, where he gained a Masters in International Business (with a sub-specialism in sport management). Prior to working for the IPC, Jose worked as a Management Consultant for SMEs within the Sports Industry, and was a Research Fellow at IESE Business School, Madrid, Spain, working on sport industry projects.

Contact Details

Jose Gigante - jose.gigante@paralympic.org

For further details on this seminar series contact:

Sean Hamil
Department of Management
Birkbeck College
Malet Street
London
WC1E 7HX

Tel: 020-7631 6763
Email: s.hamil@bbk.ac.uk

Birkbeck Sport Business Centre

Player Nationality On The Pitch. What Origin In What Position?

Player Nationality On The Pitch. What Origin In What Position?

Synopsis

Reading

Biography

Contact Details

The Italian Sport System: a General Framework

The Italian Sport System: a General Framework

Synopsis

Reading

Biography

Professor Cristiana Buscarini

Dr Daniela Fruci

Contact Details

The role of Social Accountability for the Italian Sports Federations: A Proposal for Guidelines to Edit a Social Report

The role of Social Accountability for the Italian Sports Federations: A Proposal for Guidelines to Edit a Social Report

Synopsis

Reading

Biography

Contact Details

Measuring sport sponsorships� efficiency: How could the value of sport sponsorships be increased?

Measuring sport sponsorships’ efficiency: How could the value of sport sponsorships be increased?

Synopsis

Reading

Biography

Contact Details

Searching for the Roots of Football Fandom in the City of Trabzon

Searching for the Roots of Football Fandom in the City of Trabzon

Synopsis

Reading

Biography

Contact Details

The Organisation of the Sport System in Turkey: The SGM (Former GSGM), The Ministry of Youth and Sport and the relevant laws.

The Organisation of the Sport System in Turkey: The SGM (Former GSGM), The Ministry of Youth and Sport and the relevant laws.

Synopsis

Biography

Contact Details

The Governance of Turkish Football: The Council, the Board and the Committees

The Governance of Turkish Football: The Council, the Board and the Committees

Synopsis

Reading

Biography

Contact Details

Representing Players in Sport: Bargaining for A Fair Deal for Athletes in an Olympic Year

Representing Players in Sport: Bargaining for A Fair Deal for Athletes in an Olympic Year

Live video stream

Host Partners

Speakers

Hosts

Debate Chair

Panel

Tony Higgins, FIFPro, the World Football Players Union

Walter Palmer – UNI-Global Union / European Elite Athletes Association

Barry McGuigan - Founder, The Barry McGuigan Boxing Academy

Synopsis

Biographies

Drinks Reception – 8pm-9pm

How and why are the Danish FA implementing a new concept called Football Fitness?

How and why are the Danish FA implementing a new concept called Football Fitness?

Synopsis

Reading

Biography

Contact Details

Branding in English Sport: A Series of Missed Opportunities?

Branding in English Sport: A Series of Missed Opportunities?

Reading

Biography

Contact Details

The Performance of Football Club Managers: Skill or Luck?

The Performance of Football Club Managers: Skill or Luck?

Synopsis

Reading

Biography

Contact Details

The Protection of Young Footballers - What is the Way Forward?

The Protection of Young Footballers - What is the Way Forward?

Synopsis

Reading

Biographies