UEFA CFM success in Spain

Football management skills are being strengthened across Europe, with Spain the latest country to complete its national edition of the UEFA Certificate in Football Management (UEFA CFM) programme.

Twenty-three participants graduated from the course in Madrid, including 18 from the hosts, the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), one each from Spanish clubs Sevilla and Valencia, and one from each of Spain's three sister associations – the Turkish Football Federation (TFF), Romanian Football Federation (FRF) and Bulgarian Football Union (BFS).

The nine-month UEFA CFM programme includes studies in football organisation, strategy and strategic management, operational management, marketing and sponsorship, communications, media and public relations and event organisation.

Six interactive online modules and three face-to-face seminars enable graduates to learn skills to help them move with confidence into senior positions and make maximum use of their studies.

UEFA's CFM programme aims to benefit football across the continent. "This programme run by UEFA is fundamental," said RFEF general secretary Jorge Juan Pérez Arias, "because UEFA sets a high standard of excellence, which gives a great example to everybody in football." Jorge Carretero García, member of the RFEF board of directors, congratulated the graduates at their ceremony.

UEFA's head of national associations development Thierry Favre told the graduates: "Please remember that it is now your responsibility to share the ideas, the knowledge and the concerns you developed during this course with the people from your organisation. UEFA wants you all to contribute to making football even better, even more successful and even more attractive."

The Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration (IDHEAP) at the University of Lausanne awards the certificates, while the course is prepared and conducted by renowned academics from universities in France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.