FIFA introduces sports diploma at UWI
FIFA vice-president and CONCACAF president Jack Warner is commending the University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus, for its dedication and commitment to raising the standard of sport administration in the region.
Warner’s comments were made at the official launch of the Postgraduate Diploma in Sports Management programme at the Office of the Campus Principal last Friday.
The programme, which commenced at the beginning of this month, is partnership between the University of the West Indies St Augustine Campus and The International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES).
The International Centre for Sports Study (CEIS) is a private foundation that was created by FIFA and is affiliated with the University of Neuchâtel.
Warner believes the programme will provide sport administrators with the necessary tools to compete in a global market.
“This programme, I am sure, will provide a coherent, academically rigorous, vocationally relevant and culturally specific education, which will enable our scholars throughout the region to develop to be critical and reflective leaders in the world of sport management.”
The launch was the end result of an almost two-year negotiation period; a negotiation which was initiated by Warner.
Warner says the idea for the programme was germinated after numerous discussions with the youth of the nation.
“So many young minds want to move beyond the field, but they cannot find the avenue to exploit their passion for the sport beyond the field of play.
“I understand we have the passion and the drive; we have the know-how, but we show the world that like the giant nations in sport, we too can boast of world-class skills and we will have the paper to back this.”
Warner, who is by many considered to be one of the most powerful men in sport in the region, congratulated all the men and women enrolled in the programme, saying it is a move which can only propel them forward.
“Destiny is not a matter of choice, but the function of a prepared mind, and anything you wish and yearn for can be achieved,” he said.
The FIFA executive says he is optimistic the issue of succession planning, which has been a sore point in all areas of sport, will finally be resolved through programmes such as this.
“The only way for us to predict the future that will make… us benefit is to have the power it. This postgraduate diploma in sports management gives us that power. Let us embrace it. Big thinking precedes big achievement.
“This programme provides us with the responsibility in our time not to be prisoners of history, but shapers and definers of destiny to build bridges for others to cross.”
This Postgraduate Diploma programme will focus on management, marketing, finance, law, communication, event management and facilities management.
It will be co-ordinated by the Faculty of Social Sciences, and will be housed by an Institute of Sport Studies, which will be established under the umbrella of the UWI Sport and Physical Education Centre (SPEC).