First South African accepted for Europe’s Master in Football Business programme

My name is Thabang Mazibuko, a 33-year-old Sport Administrator from Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg, South Africa.

I have been working in the sport industry for exactly 13-years, gradually building an exciting career in the various sectors of the industry which include Communications, Event Management, Marketing and Sponsorship.

As one of the next generation of African sport administration leaders, I am purposefully getting out of my comfort zone to learn, grow and enhance my skills set and knowledge of the industry.

As a result, I have applied and been accepted to study for the Master in Football Business Programme in Europe, which is run by the Football Business Academy in Switzerland.

This is a comprehensive programme which is spearheaded by some of the world's most respected professors and industry leaders who occupy highly esteemed positions in world football.

I am even more excited to announce that I am the first South African to be accepted for this course. This is a huge achievement considering the highly skilled and experienced administrators that we have across the country.

With this being the 12^th edition, I will be the third African to enrol for the course, which is a step in the right direction for the growth of football on the continent.

So the question may be, why am I doing this and what benefit will it be to South Africa or even the continent?

Plain and simple - for years we have sat on the sidelines, hiding behind our keyboards, complaining about how much we are lagging behind in comparison to the rest of the world.

All this without ever acknowledging some of the ground work that some of our leaders have done in laying a solid foundation, with very limited recourses and all the odds heavily stacked against them.

Fast-forward to years later, a new generation of sport administrators has emerged. Bursting with fresh energies, new ideas and ready to “change” the game. The question is, how ready are we and more importantly, have we empowered ourselves to actually take the game forward?

I am one of the very few that have had the honour and privilege of serving in football, purposefully referring to it as serving because it is a calling more than anything.

Since stepping into the scene back in 2010 as an intern at the public broadcaster during Africa’s first ever FIFA World Cup™, I have had the pleasure of working on a number of tournaments, campaigns and programmes under international organisations such as CAF, COSAFA, FIFA as well as a number of professional cup competitions in South Africa.

From amateur, right up to professional level, football has taken me to places that I never even dreamt of, introduced me to people that I never thought I would ever meet and to this day, football continues to change my life as well as that of my family.

With the experience and skills gathered over the last few years, I established my very own Sports Marketing & PR agency in 2017, which continues to grow from strength to strength thanks to the faith the industry has had in me.

While I cherish the memorable strides made over the last few years, I strongly believe that I have not even scratched the surface compared to what I envision where the game needs to be on the continent.

I believe in my continent and want to be an integral part of using football as a key driver of transforming the tainted image that has been drawn of my continent. I have seen what football has done for me and my family and with the right set of skills and knowledge, I can only imagine what it can do for the rest of Africa.

I am therefore enrolling for this programme to equip myself with the latest trends and innovative strategies that we admire from the sidelines when watching international competitions – With your help, I want to bring all that here.

This 1-year programme comprises of theory and practical sessions which include placement in European sport organisations, clubs, federations, leagues and agencies.

The tuition fees for the course are 30 000 Swiss Franc, which amounts to about R530 590.00 ($30447.57). This excludes travel, accommodation and meals for the five months that I will be spending in Europe.

I am therefore humbly appealing to the sport industry at large, corporate South Africa, Sport loving fans, and all stakeholders of the game to kindly assist me in achieving this objective, which in turn, will be of great benefit to sport here in South Africa and the rest of our beautiful continent.

The total fee, inclusive of tuition fees, travel, accommodation, meals and overall living expenses is estimated at around 45 000 Swizz Franc (R795 722.85).

Yours in Football,

Thabang Mazibuko