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The Premier League served as host to the students of the Mumbai based Global Institute of Sports Business (GISB) during their recent international study trip to the United Kingdom. The primary objective of the trip was to provide the students of India’s first industry designed and internationally certified sports management course with the opportunity to learn about the business operations which drive the most followed sports league in the world.
The intensive week included a full day immersion at the Premier League office, numerous interactive sessions with Premier League clubs, agency office visits, stadium tours and a Matchday experience where the students were able to watch a Premier League match live in the stadium.
The trip began with great anticipation as the GISB students had a chance to visit the Premier League Productions team at the IMG Studios in Stockley Park, West London. This was an opportunity for the aspiring sports managers to learn about content creation and distribution for a League that is watched in over 200 countries worldwide.
As a part of the experience, the students were provided with the chance to see a live shoot of ‘Fanzone,’ a popular Premier League magazine show and also meet with host of Matchday Live, Manish Bhasin, who is a popular figure in the sports broadcast space and an inspiration for many football lovers in India due to his Indian heritage.
The next day, the Premier League welcomed the group at their Headquarters in Central London. The students had the invaluable experience of learning about the strategies that go into marketing the most popular football league in the world from Premier League Brand Manager Stuart Payling with the highlight being a focused discussion on the League’s recent re-brand which was of interest to each person in the room.
The subsequent sessions included a discussion on the Premier League’s corporate partnerships strategy led by Patrick Neill from the Partnerships team, a session on Premier League Governance led by Governance Manager Mathew Segal and an interactive discussion on the Premier League’s international strategy delivered by Tim Vine who oversees Public Affairs for the world’s biggest professional football league.
The sessions with the Premier League were followed by a day of Community Development where the students visited the Queens Park Rangers Community Trust and the West Ham United Foundation.
The sessions with West Ham continued into the following days as Rashid Abba who serves as the Employability & Coach Education Manager for the West Ham Foundation invited the students to participate in an FA Level 2 coaching course and spent a morning inspiring the group at the GISB accommodation in south London. Through these highly interactive sessions, the GISB students were able to learn about how an individual and an organization can leverage the sport of football to have an on-going positive impact on society both on and off the pitch.
The final study segment of the trip was Stadium Experiences where the students toured the home of Chelsea FC – Stamford Bridge and the home of English Football – Wembley Stadium. Through these tours, the students had the opportunity to understand what goes into building, managing, maintaining and monetizing some of the biggest entertainment venues in the world.
As an added bonus, the Premier League organized the students to break up into three groups to watch Live Premier League matches. One group attended Arsenal FC v Brighton Hove Albion at Emirates Stadium, another group attended Chelsea FC v Watford FC at Stamford Bridge and the third group attended West Ham United v Southampton FC at London Stadium. The atmosphere at each stadium was electric and the students were buzzing after the matches as for most of them it was their first time watching a Premier League game live in the stadium.
Beyond the Premier League engagements, GISB had organized interactive sessions with SRi, a leading executive recruitment and placement firm, Sportradar, the world’s leading sports data and digital content services provider and AFDP Global, an organization set up by HRH Prince Ali Bin Hussein focused on transforming lives through football.
GISB’s first international study trip was a great success as the aspiring sports managers developed a deep understanding of some of the best practices utilized by a few of the world’s biggest sports properties and, most importantly, began to explore how these learnings could be implemented in India in order to further the Indian sporting ecosystem.
