ECA News

The fifth session of the ECA Club Management Programme, the first in 2017, was successfully held on the 10th and 11th of January in Madrid. Focused on both Match Operations and Legal & Integrity matters, the two-day event was organised at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, home of current UEFA Champions League title holders Real Madrid CF.

The first day entirely focused on Match Operations, from both a theoretical and practical point of view. Accordingly, during the morning session the 35 ECA CMP participants were confronted with different case-studies and success stories from a variety of speakers including the host Real Madrid CF, Juventus as well as UEFA and KPMG. Complementing these presentations, in the afternoon the participants had the unique opportunity to assist to the pre-match operations at the Vicente Calderón Stadium, home of Club Atlético de Madrid, prior to the Copa del Rey fixture featuring the home team and UD Las Palmas.

The second day was dedicated to Integrity Issues, and started with a presentation by ECA on sports law in relation to modern football, which was soon to be followed by an insight into the legal practices at club level, presented by Real Madrid CF. The daily programme was completed by the interventions of legal and integrity experts from AZ Alkmaar and La Liga, and with a final practical session where the participants discussed and debated on concrete integrity cases arising from European football clubs.

The sixth and final session of the first edition of the 18-month long ECA Club Management Programme will be held in Warsaw, Poland, in the spring of 2017.