Les Ferdinand: The Changing Culture of Football
On Tuesday April 17th the University of Liverpool Management School was pleased to welcome former England International Footballer Les Ferdinand to give a talk on the changing nature of culture in football.
While Les may now spend most of his time in London as Director of Football at QPR (apart from the times he is required to have meetings on private jets destined for Paris), he is no stranger to Merseyside – indeed having scored 16 goals playing against Everton he would tell you that Goodison Park is one of his favourite places!
In addition to his reflections as a player, Les spoke candidly on the challenges and changing aspects of football culture today. He gave great insight into the impact of social media, the mentality of young players and their career aspirations, the stark differences between data “analytics” in the 90’s and today, and called for greater race and ethnic diversity across all levels of the game.
Les finished the session by hosting an in-depth Q&A on all aspects of his career, and changing nature of football, before becoming the object of a fairly lengthy autograph and photo queue! Most importantly however was the advice and support he was able to offer members of the audience, which was populated by a wide range of students, and staff from the University, but those mostly enrolled on MSc Sports Business and the Football Industries MBA.
Josh Somersall-Weekes, MSc Sports Business student, said "The talk was fantastic, such an opportunity to hear from Sir Les! The MSc Sports Business programme at this university is amazing if you think about it – Les Ferdinand has just come in and chatted with us."
David Cockayne, Senior Lecturer, Business & Sport Management, commented, “A really insightful discussion – open, honest, humorous! Not everyday someone you grow up watching comes into where you work and gives a talk!”