UCFB students launch own online football business magazine and student survival guide

Two UCFB students hope to continue to showcase their entrepreneurial skills when they graduate from the world first institution next summer.

Luke Astill-Boardman and Junaid Aurangzeb, who’re both about to start their final year of the BA (Hons) Football Business & Marketing programme at UCFB Etihad Campus, set up LJ Creatives in the first year of their course as a media and marketing agency, as part of a marketing assignment.

In the second year came LJ Creatives Publishing, with its own online magazine UK Football Business. The pair have also been commissioned to produce a business directory for Championship side Huddersfield Town, and a student survival guide for new and existing UCFB students in September.

A big breakthrough for Luke and Junaid was finishing runner-up in the UCFB Sports Entrepreneur Award last year, which won £2,500 towards their business, thanks to their UK Football Business idea. The award is a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style competition for ambitious students to pitch their innovative ideas for sports companies to a panel of business leaders, and was set up by UCFB Chairman Brendan Flood.

As part of their prize, the pair spent two weeks with the UCFB marketing team at Wembley Stadium to help create and build a website for the student unions at UCFB Wembley and UCFB Etihad Campus, which is set to launch next month.

Luke said: “We are extremely surprised at how far we have already come with the business working with companies such as Huddersfield Town, creating a magazine and website for UCFB and even creating our own corporate football magazine.

“We hope to gain more contacts over the next year and to build on our current experiences working at UCFB Wembley. We will continue to use LJ Creatives to gain future business and as our online portfolio, but are still open to the options that may arise in terms of job prospects within the football industry.”

Junaid added: “Working in a corporate environment has benefitted our business. We have learned to follow brand guidelines and how to scale projects to meet set requirements.”