University of Bedfordshire

BA (Hons) in Football Business

What will you study?

Studying our Football Business BA (Hons) course will equip you with the knowledge and skills around the sports industry, marketing and management. You will gain a broad understanding of the football industry as well as its impact on contemporary society in our units in an Introduction to Football Studies, The Football Industry and Contemporary Issues in Football. You will look closely at the causes of fandom and question what makes people support a particular team - successful or unsuccessful – while also examining how economic factors have shaped football into a global cultural phenomenon. In areas of business, you will explore the recent changes within the football industry such as stadium reconstruction and development, the relationship between clubs and fans, and the relationship between football and the media in The Business of Football unit. Furthermore, you will discuss the impact of football on local and international economies, how differing ownership models for football clubs affect their position in the industry, and factor in the role of marketing within football in our Sport Marketing unit by examining how owners maximise revenue potential. With this approach, you will also look at research into Football Governance to understand how football organisations operate at all levels.

Moreover, our Football Finance unit aims to outline the financial and economic aspects of the football industry for you to assess the financial strength of such organisations in the field. Another key factor you will consider is environmental sustainability, and you will analyse how committed sport governing bodies and event organisers are to this cause alongside international development and world peace in our Sport in a Global Context: Sustainability and Development unit. Regarding sport management, our Strategic Sport Management unit will expose you firsthand to the strategic management processes behind the development of sport and physical activity. Based on real-life case studies, you will critically analyse the vital issues and approaches to creating sports programmes while assessing the needs of participants and managing the provision of sport and physical activity. Similarly, our unit in Sport and Physical Activity Management will allow you to consider the management and provision issues that arise from the constraints and pressures of the commercial sector. You will then learn to apply this knowledge within sport organisations in our Sport in Action: Management unit while examining the role of the state, non-profit and professional sectors in sport. In addition, you will also learn the discipline of Managing Elite Sports and the role of high-performance directors in athlete success as a developing area of study.

You will also be exposed to units focused on individual performance and career, such as by developing practical coaching skills to provide positive learning environments for performers in our Foundations for Football Coaching unit. This closely links to our Football Development unit where you will assess youth development programmes in football from around the world to highlight best practices used to identify and support talented young players. Similarly, you will also explore current biographies of famous sports figures and other research in sports sociology in our Sport, Physical Activity and Life Story unit. Finally, you will have the opportunity to complete a Dissertation for Sport and Physical Activity where you will identify a key issue relevant to your study and examine it using the skills and knowledge gained from your academic study. To help you with this, our units in Dissertation Preparation, Research Methods for Sport, Exercise and Physical Activity, and an Introduction to Research Methods will support you in reading and understanding research, and completing a proposal with ethical documentation. Alternatively, you can complete a Work Placement Project that will allow you to undertake work experience in the field that can be used to develop reflective practice, critical evaluation and work-based skills.

To prepare you for your career, our Working in Sport and Physical Education unit will introduce you to multiple career pathways available within the Sport & Physical Activity industry. You will then acquire the skills for the job application and interview process in our Professional Development and Employability unit, while also learning how to apply for grant funding. Furthermore, our Professional Development (Sport Policy Enactment) unit is where you will engage in project management to design a school or community-based intervention based on your knowledge of government policy, partnership and grant applications. To add to this, you can also undertake a Professional Practice Year (Sports Science and Physical Activity) that will allow you to gain work experience while developing your professional skills.

How will you be assessed?

You will be required to undertake a variety of assessments that vary depending on the learning outcomes of the unit delivered. The range of assessment styles includes: written reports and essays oral presentations e-portfolios phase tests and collaborative projects. In addition, you will undertake practical assessments related to the design planning and delivery of a wide variety of football projects providing an opportunity to develop and demonstrate critical analysis problem-solving communication styles needed in business.

Assessment of these activities will be based on tasks which develop vocational skills underpinned by subject knowledge requiring higher levels of cognition in the upper levels of the course. As you progress through the levels of study the marking criteria for all assessment styles undertaken will be that much more rigorous with the expectation you progressively demonstrate a more theory-driven understanding of the football industry and practices.

The workshop approach of the teaching and learning strategy enables formative assessment to be ongoing. Units combine formal -summative' (e.g. individual and group-based assignments) and informal -formative' (e.g. reflective tasks) modes of assessment drawing also upon peer review and peer support techniques staggered periodically throughout the units so as to emphasise and support incremental individual student learning as a process.

Our graduates are able to secure a wide range of roles in the football industry as well as the wider sports industries. Examples include Broadcast Executive, Referee Development Officer, Broadcast Sport Technology Specialist, Sport Business Owner, Sports Business Technology Owner, Commercial Development & Global Strategic Partnership Manager and academic roles in other universities.

These roles, and others, have been with a wide range of clubs in the FA Premier League and The English Football League as well as with FIFA and in countries outside of the UK such as the USA, Latvia, China and Malaysia. Students often progress to postgraduate degrees also.

Our graduates have also been successful in gaining employment within a wider range of sport-sector areas including community local authority and sport governing-body sport-development teams, professional sport clubs, international sport development; project and event management, and health and fitness management. Students have also developed their own sport-sector businesses.