As the curtains closed on an inspiring journey, the last three-day physical session of the first-ever European Leagues’ Executive Education Programme – ELEVATE – took place in London, hosted by the Premier League.
The final session marked the culmination of the Group Project Task, undertaken by participants during the second half of the programme. For this first ELEVATE edition, the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) was at the centre of the Group Project Task where participants had to develop and present innovative proposals that would drive the future growth and development of the SPFL.
The second day began with an air of anticipation as the participants visited the iconic Lords Cricket Ground, for an interactive demonstration/batting session at the cricket academy which was followed by a presentation from Vikram Banerjee, Director of Strategy, Insights & Business Operations at English Cricket Board (ECB). The ELEVATE Executive Programme reached its climax in the afternoon at the Premier League offices, where each group had the opportunity to present their final projects in front of a judging panel composed of representatives from the SPFL, IMG, Twenty First Group and European Leagues.
On the third and final day, Richard Masters, CEO of the Premier League, gave an insightful presentation which was followed by an interactive Q&A session.
The programme concluded with a graduation ceremony, marking the end of 8 months of dedication, hard work and new experiences for our 21 participants, each of them representing a professional football league member of the European Leagues.
Chris Gerstle, European Leagues: “It was a real pleasure for us at the European Leagues to delivery this programme for our members. We have a unique opportunity to create a programme focused on ‘league management’ that we believe will create lasting value, not only in relation to the content but also in fostering even closer personal relationships with those that are part of our association”.
Marc Rondagh, Eredivisie: “As a participant in ELEVATE, I learned an immense amount through great presentations and case studies, was able to exchange information with the other participants and build a network, which is going to be helpful to me for the rest of my (football) career”.
Congratulations to all our participants for successfully completing the first edition of ELEVATE!