FIFA President Gianni Infantino has congratulated the second group of graduates to pass the FIFA Diploma in Club Management course, telling them that “club football is crucial for the development and the survival of football”. Since its launch in 2021, the FIFA Diploma in Club Management has established itself as the leading knowledge-sharing and networking platform for senior club executives. Comprising six modules that focus on the latest trends in club operations, stadium management, finance, marketing, communications, sporting strategy, youth academies, governance, legal matters, and leadership and negotiation skills, the diploma is aimed at enhancing the professionalisation of football and helping clubs around the world compete at the highest level on and off the pitch.

Facing the group of graduates, which includes former players Tim Cahill, Fernandinho and Juan Mata, Mr Infantino said the course’s aim was to encourage knowledge and best practice exchange to be able to ensure football’s continued growth and health worldwide.

“You understand that club football is crucial for the development and the survival of football in all the countries of the world,” said the FIFA President at the graduation ceremony at FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.

“That is what we have to foster and what we have to work on, and to do this, you have to be well-equipped and well-prepared, and this is our aim at FIFA: to give you this preparation, to give you this equipment, to open the doors of FIFA here in Zurich and everywhere in the world where we are, from Paris to Miami to Jakarta to Doha to everywhere we are. Our doors are open for you to come and exchange with us, and also to exchange between yourselves.”

He added: “It was especially pleasing to see so many FIFA Legends among those participating in the course. There is still so much to do in the game, and as of next year, FIFA will have a new course dedicated to players so they can be well-equipped to make an impact off the pitch too.”

The second edition of the FIFA Diploma in Club Management kicked off in New York in September 2022 with participants attending lectures given by the likes of FIFA Chief of Global Football Development Arsène Wenger and FIFA Chief Women’s Football Officer Sarai Bareman in person and online in a number of cities around the world. Open to those working for a club in an executive or managerial position, participants accumulated experience and knowledge over the 18-month course across the range of management fields in the build-up to their final project: a strategy plan that was presented prior to graduation. The third edition of the programme, which is headed by FIFA Director of Professional Football Ornella Desirée Bellia, is already now underway, and features representatives from all six confederations, including current players and former players turned coach Giorgio Chiellini and Cesc Fàbregas, as well as a number of club owners, CEOs and sporting directors, as part of FIFA’s ongoing objective of giving more people around the world more opportunities to play, watch and work in football.

“There are countries around the world, until a couple of years ago [which] did not have a league, they didn’t have a local competition – big countries, even – with millions and millions of people living there,” concluded the FIFA President. “And we are changing all that, we are trying to impact the world and we need you – we need all of you – to be part of our team to help us to impact the world, to unite the world around this beautiful, beautiful sport and to help us to make it really and truly global.”