Friday 24 January 2025, 16:00

The Executive Programme in Good Governance concludes with a flourish in Paris

  • Around 20 European Member Associations gathered in Paris

  • FIFA’s Executive Programme in Good Governance concludes

  • FIFA Campus compiles and streamlines FIFA's training programmes

Representatives from around 20 European Member Associations spent two days in Paris, France, on 23 and 24 January to wrap up the final phase of FIFA's Executive Programme in Good Governance.

The gathering comprised the sixth and concluding module of the FIFA Executive Programme in Good Governance. Before coming to Paris, the participants had followed five online modules over a 12-week period. The programme provided an intensive learning journey for senior professionals working at member associations across Europe. It was designed provide them with solutions geared towards the specific needs of their respective national associations.

During the two-day in-person module, participants recapped the various topics covered over the last few months, while benefitting from useful insights in other good governance areas – such as creating a high-performance environment - provided by high-profile speakers Paul Barber, CEO of Brighton & Hove Albion FC, and Hicham El Amrani, Senior Advisor to the Saudi Arabia Football Association. Being together also gave participant also the opportunity to exchange their own experiences and practices in governance at football associations.

FIFA Executive Programme in Good Governance in Paris, France

Various governance topics

“I would like to thank FIFA for this initiative,” said a smiling Rita Bagdoniene, General Secretary of the Lithuanian Football Association (LFF). “Without these initiatives, we are not improving ourselves. It is one way we can reach a better level than we are. All the lecturers that were invited here to teach us are unbelievably good,” she said. She found the practical and specific approach particularly appealing, making it easy to envisage how it could be applied.

Andreas Baumgartner, Head of Good Governance at the Austrian Football Association (ÖFB), was equally grateful to leave Paris with new ideas for improving leadership and decision-making. “With the interconnection with all the experts and colleagues from other associations, you can exchange your ideas and your experience. It’s perfect, perfect in our situation in Austria,” he said.

Meanwhile, Teresa Romão, General Secretary of the Portuguese Football Association (FPF), picked up on the idea that “governance is not to be taken for granted. We need to be constantly adapting to new challenges.”

FIFA Campus, providing streamlined options

While each member association faces its issues, FIFA is on hand to share its expertise, identify problems and offer comprehensive solutions geared towards training and development requirements. “We can see just how keen people are on this kind of initiative,” said Gelson Fernandes, Deputy Chief Member Associations Officer. “Capacity building is one of President Gianni Infantino's key objectives, and all our efforts are working towards that goal,” said the former Switzerland international.

This hard work has been rewarded by the incredible level of engagement shown by the programme's participants, as Tom Gorissen, FIFA's Director of Member Association Services, explained. “I'm delighted to see all these leaders, who have a highly demanding job within their associations, getting involved and devoting so much time to it,” he said.

FIFA Campus was established in response to world football's governing body's desire to gather all of its training programmes under a single umbrella “so that member associations can find information easily on FIFA's courses, capacity development and e-learning opportunities,” explained Mr Gorissen.

A new cycle coming soon

“We embarked on this adventure last year by rolling out four initiatives, four FIFA Campus pilot projects,” he added. Following on from Africa, Asia/Oceania and the Americas, Europe has just wrapped up this first successful cycle, although it is not entirely over yet, as each participant has been asked to apply the lessons learnt to an exercise within their own association.

“We aim to draw on all the lessons learned from our members' feedback as we implement our approach so that we can fine-tune everything from e-learning to the content of our in-person sessions.”

The feedback received during the earlier sessions of this first phase was extremely positive, and this European round confirms this overwhelming success. A new series of sessions will be launched in March 2025 to give member associations worldwide, who did not take part in this first phase, the chance to get involved.