Dr Daniel Parnell BSc, PhD, FHEA, PGCert

Personal Statement

I am Director of Studies of the Football Industries MBA and an Associate Professor in Sport Business at the University of Liverpool Management School. My passion within my teaching, sport and business is to help people challenge and develop themselves, enabling personal growth and organisational improvement. My research interests lie in business management, policy, and social and economic networks in sport.

I hold a number of public engagement roles in the sport industry. These experiences have helped me develop a critical and comprehensive understanding of the sport and football industry, which informs my teaching, scholarship and consultancy.

Within the management school at the University of Liverpool, I sit within the Marketing Group and the Centre for Sport Business teaching on the Football Industries MBA, MSc in Sport Business and Management and League Managers Association Diploma.

I am CEO of the Association of Sporting Directors, an organisation that connects, supports and develops football leaders. I have held board and advisory positions, including the Football Association of Wales (FAW) Talent ID and Development Advisory Group and the review Board for the Elite Academy Managers Programme for the English Premier League (EPL).

My research is focused on positive change at a personal, organisational and policy level. As such I maintain deep, rich and relevant links with the sport industry. This has included research and knowledge exchange roles in a number of football clubs, The FA, FIFA, FAW and EPL. Beyond this, I am regularly invited to talk at different conferences, universities and organisations on a variety of educational topics.

I maintain a number of editorial board position, inc. Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Managing Sport and Leisure. I co-edit the Routledge Book Series ‘Critical Research in Football’ and co-edited a number of books, inc. the Routledge Handbook of Football Business and Management and The Business of the FIFA World Cup.

Prizes or Honours

• Best Monograph Award (runner-up): Football as Medicine: Prescribing Football for Global Health Promotion (Routledge (Taylor and Francis), 2020)
• Shortlisted for the ECSS Young Investigator Award (Liverpool, England) (European College of Sport Science, 2011)
• Highly Commendable Project Market Place Exhibitor (European College of Sport Science (ECSS), 2011)
• Shortlisted for the New Researcher Award (Prague, Czech Republic) (European Association of Sport Management, 2010)
• Shortlisted for the New Researcher Award (Heidelberg, Germany) (European Association Sport Management, 2008)

Funded Fellowships