FIFA President Awarded HSE Sports Management Graduates

Graduates of the joint FIFA/CIES – HSE programme in Sports Management have won the FIFA/CIES Network Prize for 2016 for their 360º Academy project. The winners were awarded their prize by Gianni Infantino.

The 360º Academy project was prepared by Olga Laeva, Elena Bortnichek, Daria Smirnova, Lev Fertelmeyster and Maksim Shipov under the supervision of Alexander Chebotarev, a sports lawyer and former general director of Lada hockey club. The project offers a model for sports education establishments where athletes get comprehensive training for their development and social adaptation.

‘We are offering an organizational model with a developed system of management, a marketing and communication strategy, and a working financial model. This model’s advantage is its adjustability, and, accordingly, various mechanisms for its implementation’, said Olga Laeva, the team captain.

The project was trialed at the ‘Chaikovskaya’s Skate’ sports school, where Maxim Shipov, a Russian figure skater and member of the project team, works.

‘I believe that the most important and the strongest aspect of the project is that it supports a change in sports managers’ way of thinking’, said Elena Chaikovskaya, a renowned Soviet and Russian figure skating coach, ‘They think about how to build the management system properly and effectively, to build a marketing strategy, and how to attract and return investment. I believe that this approach is the future of sports development in Russia. It will help Russia to uncover new stars and lead to an era of new athletes and sports specializations’.

The main prize of the contest was a trip for the best project team to Switzerland, to visit the FIFA and CIES headquarters. During the trip, the HSE team presented their project to students of the FIFA Master programme – the world’s leading programme in sports management.