First goalscorer, then club president?

This is no longer the rule, although many believe it is.

"Often the old picture still prevails: Management jobs are given because someone has played in a club," says Johannes Heil, Professor of Sports Management at Macromedia University.

"But it is obvious that the stable smell alone is not enough." The progressive professionalization and commercialization of the sport requires more and more experts in different fields.

The professional clubs and companies in the sports industry have long recognized this.

Because the demand for qualified staff is high, more and more universities are offering special courses.

David Lindenfeld

volunteer.

  • Follow I follow

The private Macromedia University, which has also been offering the Sports Management course in Frankfurt since last winter semester, is one of three universities in the Rhine-Main area with such a program.

The other two are the Accadis University in Bad Homburg, where sports management has been taught since 2006, and the Fresenius University, which has been offering this subject in Wiesbaden since 2015.

“The offer has been significantly expanded in recent years.

Many jump on the bandwagon, the competition is getting bigger, but not everyone offers quality and the network that is particularly important in sports management,” says Florian Pfeffel, President of the Accadis University.

Internship at Wehen Wiesbaden

Sports management is a subject that attracts many.

All three universities report stable, if not increasing, numbers of applicants.

"The course is developing very well with us, although sport has suffered greatly as a result of the pandemic," says Susanne Epple, Dean of Studies for Sports Management at Fresenius University of Applied Sciences.

Pfeffel and Heil also report high demand.

According to Heil, the “interest in intelligent sports marketing” was even greater than usual during the pandemic. “There were many inquiries from clubs about fan loyalty programs.

The question then often came up: How can we keep the fans interested?”

Many of the students come into contact with such questions through practical work.

One of them is Luisa Eberhard, who is in her sixth semester studying at the Fresenius University of Applied Sciences and is currently doing a six-month internship at the third division soccer club SV Wehen Wiesbaden.

She has always had a great desire to organize, has always been involved in the golf club or in organizing events such as the prom.

At some point, Eberhard, who didn't want to study for a long time, decided to study sports management in Wiesbaden.

She likes the new campus and the university: "Perhaps it's not the student life in anonymity that you're used to, but rather learning together.

I'm very independent, but I think it's good to be taken by the hand," says Eberhard.

She doesn't know exactly what she wants to do after her bachelor's thesis.

You can imagine staying in football, but other options are also conceivable.

The field is wide: After the basics in the first semesters, which according to Eberhard can be "very dry", the students have the opportunity to specialize and set the focus themselves: economics, marketing, finance, media, event communication or Psychology are just some of the sub-fields that are offered.

The universities also advertise with their own networks.

They often work with practice partners to whom they refer students for internships.

Dream destination Favorite club

Some come to the university with clear ideas: there are many who want to join their favorite club, says Accadis President Pfeffel.

Niklas Panss, who has been studying sports management at Macromedia for a semester, also talks about his “dream” of finding a job in football.

But he would also like to work for a sports company.

Sport in general has always been one of his hobbies, which is why he chose Macromedia, which places a special focus on media-specific content in teaching.

Panße's first impressions of the new campus and the course after one semester are positive.

He and the other students know that positions in their favorite football club are rare.

But the entire sports industry, which seems to be growing despite numerous scandals, offers a wealth of jobs.

For some of those who have already made it into professional football, the Accadis University has a special course in its program.

Together with the Academy of the German Football Association, she organized a course for team managers from the first to the third men's league and the women's national league for the first time.

Team managers often have different roles at different clubs and rarely a similar career path that got them there.

Roughly speaking, they take over the organization around the team.

The core area is travel and event management.

However, team managers are often also responsible for reporting and association work, for example taking care of the integration of players and much more.

The participants, who according to Pfeffel also include people from “renowned top clubs” in the Bundesliga, complete the six-month course at the Accadia with the so-called team manager certificate.

The individual managers should benefit from the further training – but ultimately the whole of German football from the exchange.

The Accadis University is convinced that the demand for such training will grow: it hopes for a long-term cooperation with the DFB and intends to offer the course annually in the future.