Pedro Correia has delivered the module of Competitions and Mega Events for the students of the 13th edition of the FBA Master. The 3-day module took place in Nova Business School in Lisbon. There was a lot of engagement especially on the topics of competition formats and plans as well on what it takes to deliver a successful Mega Sport Event.

Several BSE experts have been involved in the Mega Sport Events taking place this year in Europe. Germany saw the Euro 2024 crowning Spain as the European champions and Paris had some memorable weeks with the IOC Summer Olympics. Our colleagues were working in a variety of areas, from Corporate Hospitality to Ticketing, Access management, Broadcasting and Media Operations.

BSE was invited to deliver the first session of the FIFA Club Professionalisation and Management Programme - African edition. Angola was the first on-site session of this programme that will involve 11 MAs in Africa. This 5 days’ workshop brought together the 16 top tier clubs, the Angolan Football Federation and the League entity. The clubs were represented at high level by the President, CEO and/or the Sports Director. The most important club business and management topics were discussed and in which way they can help the professionalisation of football. The clubs were encouraged to develop a strategic plan that will be evaluated by a FIFA academic committee. The winner will be invited to attend the Final of the FIFA Club World cup to take place in the USA in 2025.

Pedro Correia was invited by the European Club Association (ECA) to deliver a session on crisis management as part of the Club Talent & Mentoring Programme (CTMP). Twenty-five young executives from 16 different nationalities, representing 23 ECA Member Clubs, were selected to attend the second edition of the CTMP. This programme, launched in 2022, provides a pathway for the development of identified talent within a club’s management and administrative staff. It gives an opportunity to club professionals to expand their knowledge, develop key skills, build their professional network and learn from the best in the business.

Geoff Wilson and Pedro Correia have supported the Albanian Basketball Federation, through the FIBA+ programme, to develop an operational plan for the next 2 years. During the leadership retreat with the federation's top executives we have delivered capacity building on how to develop an operational plan and had hands on sessions in which the federation has put in practice the acquired knowledge and drafted their own plan according to the local context and priorities.

João Aragão Pina and Pedro Correia have successfully delivered the Operational Readiness Module for the FIFA Master 24th edition. The session took the whole day. The morning was dedicated to sport events with a tabletop simulation on match operations. The afternoon was about corporate crisis management situations. The tabletop worked very well and the participants got a notion on how to handle crisis situations in a sports organisation - from prevention using risk management to holding statements and how to handle the different stakeholders.

Different BSE experts participated in a UEFA workshop to prepare the 2024-27 club competitions cycle. A new and very exciting competition format will be introduced in order to produce more thrilling ties, to keep the competition at a high level and to maintain the on-going interest of stakeholders. UEFA has gathered Venue Directors, Venue Media Managers and Venue Operations Broadcast Managers to provide a briefing about the new cycle and the level of excellence that is required.

Pedro Correia delivered an Operational Readiness workshop, in Munich, for the 16 host associations and technical delegates for the 2024 FIBA Youth Euro Basketball tournaments. The group engaged in discussions about standard and contingency situations that the venue teams may face during the delivery of a basketball game during their respective championships. The session was fruitful and highlighted the communication lines, the expected decision making and the existing gaps that will be bridged by each host with the support of FIBA.

BSE has supported CAF in launching an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system for its 6 zonal Unions across the African Continent. https://www.cafonline.com/inside-caf/about-us/tenders/tenders-tab/caf-rfp24-01-provision-of-erp-zonal-unions-system-2024-request-for-proposal/ We provided our expertise to define the tender strategy and to develop the technical requirements. They contemplate the introduction of a management accounting structure and reported, an integrated procurement and contracted management module amongst other features. This tender hopes to build on an economy of scale by using the same ERP system for each of the 6 organisations and to be able to consolidate at the CAF continental level.

BSE visited Harare, Zimbabwe to support FIFA and ZIFA for a Leadership Retreat with the Normalization Committee (NC). The 3 day workshop focused in capacity building in areas like financial management, governance and operations, stakeholder and risk management and strategic planning. We have supported the NC to develop an operational plan, with SMART objectives so that they can accomplish the mandate provided in July 2023 and bring ZIFA back to normal operations.