media releases - Academic Partnership between cies and two South African Universi

The formation of a unique academic partnership between the Centre International d’Etude du Sport (CIES) in Neuchâtel (Switzerland), Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) in Port Elizabeth and the University of South Africa (UNISA) in Pretoria was jointly announced at a press conference on Friday, 26 January 2007 in Johannesburg.

This formal engagement aims to provide training for sport managers in the fields of marketing, law, finance, management, communication and the organisation of sport events.

The partnership was created within the framework of the FIFA initiative “Win in Africa - with Africa”. The objectives of the initiative are to establish long-term programmes of development and solidarity in order to reinforce and perpetuate the heritage of the FIFA World Cup / South Africa 2010.

Joseph S. Blatter, President of FIFA emphasised that: “this partnership is an important stage towards the realisation of my presidential objectives. I am delighted that FIFA is contributing to the training of highly qualified managers who will know how to take the future of the African sport into their own hands.”

NMMU will be responsible for delivering the contact based programme at its campuses in Port Elizabeth and George as well as at other locations in Southern Africa as the need arises. Dr Rolf Stumpf, Vice-chancellor of the NMMU, believes that the partnership “is an important step forward in linking sport and socio-economic development through creating high level sport management capacity”.

UNISA will be responsible for the distance learning programme throughout the English speaking Africa. It operates as a partner of many Universities on the African continent. Its VC, Prof Barney Pityana, declared that the partnership was part of UNISA’s mission to provide quality academic and career-focused learning opportunities to the communities like sport underpinned by principles of lifelong learning.

CIES was founded on the initiative of FIFA in 1995 in order to bring the world of sport and the academic world closer together. It specialises in three academic fields, namely in law, sociology and economics of sport. CIES has created the “FIFA Master” in 2000 and holds a chair in sport law at the University of Neuchâtel ( Switzerland). It regularly organises seminars and conferences. It is also active in the areas of research and consultancy.

For further information:
CIES: +41 32 718 39 00, http://www.cies.ch
NMMU: 041 5042497, http://www.nmmu.ac.za/default.asp?id=1356&bhcp=1
UNISA: 012 352-4150