The FIFA Master is a unique 10-month sport (and not solely football...) Master programme, initiated by FIFA, coordinated by CIES, and taught by three prestigious European universities: De Montfort University (Leicester, UK), SDA Bocconi School of Management (Milan, IT) and Neuchatel University (Neuchatel, CH), in association with the Università della Svizzera italiana.
There were sounds of applause and vuvuzelas at the graduation ceremony for the FIFA Master 10th edition on Friday 16 July 2010. Held at the Château de Neuchâtel, the students’ graduation was the climax of a unique academic programme which had taken them to three countries and three universities.
Speaking at the ceremony, CIES President Bertrand Reeb expressed his satisfaction that the FIFA Master 10th edition had accepted his challenge to be “the best edition”. There were also speeches from the representatives from FIFA, the FIFA Master partner universities, the canton of Neuchatel, FIFA Master Alumni and the FIFA Master 10th edition class representatives.
The patron for FIFA Master 10th edition was Liberian football legend George Weah, who joined other famous sport personalities such as Sir Bobby Charlton and Alexander Popov as a FIFA Master patron. Mr. Weah congratulated CIES on its successful organization of the FIFA Master over the past decade and stressed that the graduates should strive to apply what they have learnt on the programme.
Finally it was time for the FIFA Master 10th edition students to receive their qualification. Mr. Weah awarded the 29 graduates their degrees, much to the pleasure of the graduates’ family and friends. Two students, Duncan Tweed and Solomon Mudege, were awarded their degrees with distinction.
The group comprising of Keitaro Aoki, Sarah Crumbach, Creesen Naicker, Sarah Schmitter and Natalie Smith were awarded the Alberto Madella Award for their presentation “Identifying Best Practice in Women’s Football – Case study in the European club context”.
The Alberto Madella Award is given to the best Final Project presentation in honour of the late Prof. Madella who was responsible for the FIFA Master Final Projects for the first eight years of the course.
The full list of FIFA Master 10th edition graduates:
ALSHAMMARI, Badr (Saudi Arabia); AOKI, Keitaro (Japan); BAERT, Katrien (Belgium); BAZIGANGANGO, Jean-Pierre (Rwanda); BLACK, Travis (Canada); CELEN, Burcin (Turkey); COUCHONNAL, Miguel (Mexico); CRUMBACH, Sarah (Germany); DE La Maza, Cristian (Chile); HOFFMANN, Joanna (USA); INBAR, Nir (Israel); INGLOT, Alexander (England); KANHAI, Angenie (Trinidad & Tobago); KHANNA,Roma (India); LEDERMAN, Leo (Brazil); MARTENS, Friedrich (Germany); MOHTASEB, Ibrahim (Saudi Arabia); MOLLARD, Damien (Switzerland); MUDEGE, Solomon (Zimbabwe); NAICKER, Creesen (South Africa); NARANJO, Montserrat (Chile); NAZER, Mohideen (Saudi Arabia); RIGOPOULOS, Angelo (Italy); RODRIGUEZ, Jose (Venezuela); SADOWSKI, Piotr (Poland); SCHMITTER, Sarah (Germany); SMITH, Natalie (USA); TWEED, Duncan (Australia); ZANOTTA, Andre (Brazil).
CIES (International Centre for Sports Studies), located in Neuchatel, is a private Swiss foundation, affiliated with the University of Neuchatel and created in 1995 by FIFA (under the impetus of its current president, Mr. Joseph S. Blatter), the University of Neuchatel, and the City and Canton of Neuchatel.
CIES specialises in three specific domains: law, sociology and economy of sport, with a view to bring together the sporting and the academic worlds. Privileging a pluri-disciplinary approach, CIES provides a wide range of research, education and consultancy services.
