Pilot phase for national CFM programmes

UEFA's innovative Certificate in Football Management (CFM) education programme has been launched within two national associations, with England and Croatia piloting what could be a successful new approach for the initiative.

The UEFA CFM programme is linked to UEFA's Knowledge & Information Sharing Scenario (KISS) and aims to help UEFA's member associations reinforce their knowledge and management of sports, particularly football. The national edition concept is a natural evolution from the current UEFA CFM format, and could allow more people from the national associations to enrol in the scheme.

The content of the six online modules is the same, but the associations organising a national edition of the programme would have opportunities to involve local experts in the face-to-face seminars staged during the course.

UEFA is also sending experts to assist, while the professors who devised the online modules continue to oversee the face-to-face seminars. The Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration (IDHEAP) supervises the marking of the participants' reports at the end of their studies, and ultimately issues the Certificate in Football Management.

Twenty staff members at England's Football Association (FA) participated in the kick-off meeting of the UEFA CFM's English pilot-phase edition. UEFA had approached the FA in 2012 to see whether the body would pilot a bespoke national version of the course to meet the growing demand and interest in the UEFA initiative from other European associations.

The FA edition of the UEFA CFM will span six months, culminating with a graduation ceremony at St George's Park in September. It will comprise online learning modules, face-to-face seminars and networking opportunities. Topics to be covered include the organisation of football; strategic and performance management of a football association; operational management of a football association; football event management; football marketing and sponsorship; and internal and external communications in football associations.

Croatia held its kick-off event in Zagreb, after the Croatian Football Federation (HNS) readily accepted UEFA's approach to take part in the pilot project. Twenty-four participants from the HNS, regional associations and Croatian clubs registered for the UEFA CFM's Croatian edition.

Representatives of IDHEAP and UEFA attended the kick-off seminar to provide participants with advice on how to arrange their study time, as well as to wish them every success in their studies.

If the pilot phase is successful, the project will be expanded to include further national associations. Other associations have already shown interest in implementing a national edition of the UEFA CFM, and further versions of the programme could get under way during the 2013/14 season.