On Thursday, February 28th 2019, a partnership was formed between FIFA/CIES and Pillai Group of Institutions from the Mahatma Education Society in a FIFA/CIES Sports Summit organised by the Pillai Group. An executive programme in Sports Management by FIFA/CIES was also introduced with CIES (International Center for Sports Studies).
The chairman of the Pillai group, Dr K. M. Vasudevan Pillaiand the President of CIES, Pierre Cornu signed an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) in the presence of many prominent members of the professional Sports community along with the Minister for Education and Sports from the Maharashtra government, Vinod Tawde.
In 2004, FIFA/CIES University Network was founded when FIFA (World’s Governing Body of Football) and CIES came together to offer the ‘broadest possible vision’ in management in modern day sports to the students who wish to learn. Almost a decade and a half later, the university has its programme established in 15 countries all over the world like Central and South America, Africa, Asia and in many countries of the Caribbean, Europe, and the Middle East. However, India is the first country to receive the programme among the countries of South Asia. The major areas of management expertise that the programme teaches the different sports organizations are accounting and finance, communication, law, sponsorship, marketing, event management etc.
In the words of the Chairman of Pillai Group, the Pillai Group has always strived for quality and excellence in the education of their students. The partnership with FIFA/CIES, said Dr K. M. Vasudevan Pillai, comes at a time when the country is ready to take the sports ecosystem to a whole new direction. As per Pillai Group, they have always promoted students to take up sports as a career and with the introduction of the executive programme, they will now be able to provide an even better education in the field of Sports Management and become one of the chief educational institutions in the field. Pierre Lanfranchi, a scientific coordinator has said that over the years they have seen that most of the Indians who have tried to apply for FIFA Master Programme do not display the necessary experience or preparation that is needed for the programme. For this reason, it was decided to bring in the Executive Sports Management in different fields.
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The Executive programme will be taught at the Pillai Institute of Management Studies and Research, Mumbai. Candidates who have a Bachelor's Degree from a recognised Indian University or an Association of Indian University (AIU) recognised foreign university. The student will also need to have an interest in sports as well. The tuition fee for this Executive Programme in Sports Management at Pillai Institute of Management Studies and Research will cost around ₹1,85,000 for all the Indian students. Meanwhile, all the international students will be asked to pay a tuition fee of ₹2,77,760.
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The executive programme in Sports Management is set to begin in September of this year. There are other colleges that offer sports management courses in India which could be in contention after the programme begins.