Football Medical Leadership & Performance, MSc

Program Overview

The Football Medical Leadership & Performance MSc prepares students for leadership roles in elite football by equipping them with contemporary skills in performance, leadership, and medical operations management. Blending academic knowledge with industry insights from professional football clubs, the program fosters innovation and enhances employability in the global sport industry.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

The Football Medical Leadership & Performance MSc is a postgraduate program designed to equip students with contemporary leadership and operational skills in the context of elite football. It aims to develop students' understanding of performance, leadership, and operational medical department challenges within the football industry. The program emphasizes a business approach to football, applying leadership theories to real-life scenarios. It challenges students to innovate and become industry leaders, enhancing their employability through the exploration of new approaches and working practices.

Outline:

The program is delivered online and spans one year. It includes a combination of online lectures, webinars, Teams meetings, and external speakers from the world of sport, football, and business. The curriculum is structured around compulsory modules:

• Personal Leadership in an Elite Football Medical Performance Environment: This module examines various approaches to leadership development and practice in the elite football performance environment.
It critically evaluates the contribution of theoretical models and approaches associated with leadership in a global context, particularly when applied in complex settings.
• Medical Operational Management in Football: This module focuses on developing the non-clinical managerial competencies required to lead a high-performance department at an elite football club.
Students will gain skills in departmental audits of key performance metrics, formulating effective budgetary analyses, calculations, and forecasts aligned with professional sporting organizations.
• Analytics in Football: This module introduces performance analysis and sports analytics, exploring the decision-making process in elite sports.
• Strength and Conditioning for Football: This module delves into advanced methods of strength training and conditioning, analyzing current research and practical issues in the field.
It focuses on training methods rarely covered in academic careers, providing students with a competitive edge in the job market.
• Professional Practice: This module enhances critical reasoning, reflection, and debate skills, allowing students to deepen their knowledge base in an area of personal interest.
• Research Methodology and Design: This module equips students with the knowledge, techniques, and skills to critically appraise research and undertake their own small projects.
• Dissertation: The dissertation forms the second part of the program.
Students design, conduct, analyze, and interpret the results of an applied investigation relevant to their professional practice, reflecting the Masters status of the award.

Teaching:

The program utilizes a variety of online teaching methods, including online lectures, webinars, Teams meetings, and external speakers. The curriculum is designed to provide students with a toolkit covering the whole spectrum of leadership and performance. The program also embraces practical learning and research from within football clubs, offering opportunities for higher-level research beyond the program.

Careers:

The program's unique focus on elite football enhances employability as a leader in the sport. Students develop key transferable skills that can be applied across various sports and international boundaries.

Other:

The program is led by Mark Leather, Course Leader for MSc Football Science and Rehabilitation and MSc Football Medical Leadership & Performance, and Dr Jill Alexander, Senior Lecturer and Course Leader for the DProf and MProf in Elite Performance. The program has strong industry links with professional football clubs within the UK and internationally. Alumni from various postgraduate programs have connections with professional organizations such as the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP), Society of Sports Therapists (SST), and The British Association of Sport Rehabilitators and Trainers (BASRAT).

2024/25 UK Distance Full-time £9,000 per year Distance Part-time £1,000 per 20 credits International Distance Full-time £9,000 per year Distance Part-time £1,000 per 20 credits