FIMBA cohort undertake Sports Crisis Management exercise at Tranmere Rovers F.C.

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The Football Industries MBA (FIMBA) cohort recently undertook a Sports Crisis Management exercise at Tranmere Rovers F.C.

The Sports Crisis Management Exercise was conducted by Neil Doncaster (CEO SPFL) as part of FIMBA module 'Becoming a Football Executive', allowing students to apply learning from the course to a practical situation. During a two-day simulation, which was hosted at Prenton Park, home to Tranmere Rovers, the students had the opportunity to work on real-life scenarios faced by executive decision makers in the football industry. 

The groups worked as management teams with a designated CEO per team, and were assigned the task of developing press releases, as well as being assessed on how they would tackle a range of issues including incorrectly printed match day programmes and security threats during match day operations. The exercise concluded with a press conference simulation, where students faced challenging questions by journalists.

Shah-Zeib Ahmed, FIMBA candidate, commented: “The Sports Crisis Management exercise allowed students to get a taste of the real life workings of a CEO of a football club, whilst upholding delivery of match day operations. Despite having attained previous work experience at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, the exercise reminded me of how different certain challenges and their respective solutions can be. The press conference provided us with a practical insight of how to address the press and their challenging questions whilst maintaining a ’thick skin', particularly when the role of the media was being portrayed by industry veteran, Neil Doncaster."