ECA News
The first ever edition of the ECA Club Management Programme (CMP) concluded yesterday after yet another informative session on football club management in Warsaw. The event included a graduation ceremony at the city's Royal Castle where ECA CMP participants received a certificate to recognise the successful completion of the course.
ECA CMP is an educational course, based on the ECA Club Management Guide, designed to provide ECA Member Club executives with in-depth knowledge on a wide range of topics relating to football club management. The 18-month programme, developed in collaboration with Stockholm Business School, gives participants the opportunity to learn from the best practitioners in the football industry, as well as academics who specialise in areas such as management and leadership.
Each of the six two-day sessions, which are organised at football venues across Europe, focus on a different topic of club management, ranging from marketing to legal matters, and offers a mix of academic and professional lectures, as well as practical case studies from clubs.
The first edition counted 40 participants from 31 different countries. As well as diverse geographical regions represented, there were also representatives from clubs of differing sizes such as Manchester City FC, FC Internazionale Milano, Schalke 04, Fenerbahçe SK, KRC Genk, Legia Warszawa SA, Maccabi Tel-Aviv FC, HJK Helsinki and Qarabag FK. This melting pot of football expertise provided participants with varying cultural perspectives on the industry and its challenges.
The graduation ceremony held in the Royal Castle in Warsaw saw participants receive a certificate, upon successful completion of the programme, signed by the ECA Chairman, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, in association with Stockholm Business School. Maria Frostling-Henningsson, Head of School at Stockholm Business School, and the Swedish Ambassador to Poland, Inga Eriksson, along with ECA General Secretary were in attendance to present the graduates with their certificates.
Concerning the first edition of the ECA CMP, ECA General Secretary Michele Centenaro said:
"The ECA Club Management Programme has been a great success for all who have contributed to and participated in the sessions. Knowledge sharing is a key pillar of ECA and this programme has created the ideal platform for ECA Member Clubs to engage in this.
I would like to congratulate all the graduates of the first edition of the ECA CMP and thank them for the hard work they have put into the programme."
On the second edition of the ECA Club Management Programme, he stated:
"We are pleased that the second edition of the programme has been approved by the ECA Executive Board and will commence later this year. We are always striving to improve the service we provide to our members and will seek to enhance the second edition of the ECA Club Management Programme even further."
ECA would like to thank everyone who has participated in the course, as well as the clubs that have hosted ECA CMP sessions at their prestigious stadiums. ECA would also like to extend its gratitude to Stockholm Business School and LTT Sports, which have been the key partners in the venture, for their invaluable support in the creation and production of the ECA CMP.
After what has been a productive and successful first edition of the ECA CMP, ECA is looking forward to kicking off the second edition later this year in autumn 2017. More information regarding the next edition of the programme and the application procedure will be available on the dedicated www.eca-cmp.com website in mid-June.