Javier Sobrino, Director of Strategic Planning and Innovation at FC Barcelona, gives a presentation at last month’s Soccer Leadership Summit at Georgetown’s downtown campus.
Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Studies kicked off its collaboration with Spanish soccer giants FC Barcelona to advance education, leadership and research in the field of sports management.
The first event in the partnership, announced last month, was a symposium hosted July 26 at the school’s downtown campus. Soccer Leadership Summit Georgetown faculty and sports management professionals networked with Barcelona stakeholders, discussing topics such as the futures of business, technology and women in sports.
Going forward, students enrolled in the school’s sports management program will have opportunities to work with leadership and staff of the club’s recently launched Innovation Hub, a platform for innovation in sports and related fields including medicine, technology and social sciences.
Talks over the collaboration began last fall, when a Georgetown faculty member connected the soccer club’s institutional relations department to Daniel Kelly, faculty director and associate professor of the practice for the Sports Industry Management master’s program.
During the months that followed, they discussed the possibility of establishing a “knowledge partner” relationship, through which both institutions would combine their respective strengths. SCS Dean Kelly Otter and Barça Innovation Hub Commissioner Jordi Monés finalized the agreement last May.
FC Barcelona and Georgetown University sign collaboration agreement: https://t.co/jjTs8g6xbk pic.twitter.com/OHnKA7aazS
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) May 11, 2017
Kelly said he hopes the partnership will help sports management students learn about their field.
“It is my sincere hope that through a collaboration with FC Barcelona’s Innovation Hub, our students are able to learn from leaders currently in positions to which they aspire,” Kelly wrote in an email to The Hoya.
FC Barcelona, meanwhile, will gain access to the faculty expertise of the Sports Industry Management program.
“We will endeavor to contribute to the mission and charge of the Innovation Hub by leveraging the university’s resources, including sports industry management expertise among our faculty members at the School of Continuing Studies,” Kelly said.
Monés likewise expressed optimism about the agreement.
“It is with great pride that FC Barcelona and the prestigious Georgetown University have reached this collaboration agreement in order to work together within the framework of the Barça Innovation Hub,” Monés said in a statement released on FC Barcelona’s website.
