An insight – BA (Hons) Football Business and Finance at UCFB

One of UCFB’s course leaders has been talking through his BA (Hons) Football Business and Finance degree course, what modules are involved and potential career paths following graduation.

Paul Brewster, who is the course leader at UCFB Wembley, gave an overview as to what the course involves.

“This course focuses on football business,” Paul said, “but also accounting and financial information and how impactful that is to the running of organisations like football clubs.

“Football clubs produce annual reports that external users can review, so we analyse and review these reports.”

Paul added: “People might think they’re not good with numbers. You don’t need to be good with numbers. Don’t view it as a hurdle.

“What we do is apply a lot of principles around accounting and financial theory.

“One of the keys to success on the course is you need to do a lot of reading in and around financial matters relating to football clubs. That is very prevalent today. It’s widely talked about.

“A lot of our teaching is based around these reports and documents which focus on the finances at football clubs.”

Paul went on to say how many potential career paths there are from a degree in BA (Hons) Football Business and Finance.

“Most of my students work in the industry,” he said, “so they work in accounts departments for various organisations, some work with accountancy firms, some work in areas outside of finance.

“One of the things to recognise is that a financial degree is the language of business, so it gives you the ability to work in various functions within an organisation.

“I think that’s the beauty of the course. You can have accountants who work in other departments such as marketing, customer engagements, sponsorships.

“Graduates are very flexible. They have an understanding of business, but they also have an understanding of the importance of financial information to the whole operation of the club.”

He finished: “Anyone who’s interested in business, when you learn about accounting and finance then effectively, you’re learning the language of business, any business.”