BA (Hons) Football Business and Finance

This module seeks to develop an awareness of and an understanding of the source and purpose of accounting information to organisational stakeholders – both internal and external. You will be introduced to both strands of accounting, that being Financial and Management accounting and their constituent audiences’ needs. With reference to Financial Accounting, you will be introduced to the different statements or ‘accounts’ included within the annual financial report produced by companies, their differences and the information they convey to users. Through the use of case studies, you will be taught how to draft and analyse these statements. With reference to Management Accounting, you will be introduced to accounting principles and frameworks which can be used to aid management, when it comes to decision making, planning and controlling organisational activities. You will also be introduced to the various sources of finance and their related implications to the organisation.

In this module you will be introduced to the complex business environment of the sports sector. All businesses have to operate in the global marketplace, and you will have an opportunity to learn how macro-economics and globalisation impacts sports business. You will examine why a business must exercise corporate social responsibility and incorporate sustainability into their corporate strategy.

In order for you to achieve your university and future workplace goals, you need to be aware of a number of personal qualities and behaviours that can impact your ability to succeed. It is also important that you understand the industry and societal context in which you plan to work. This module aims to introduce you to personal and professional factors relevant to employment in the sport industry, and to enhance your awareness of the industrial landscape. Additionally, it will support you in developing some essential academic skills for higher education (such as academic writing and referencing). The module will introduce you to a wide range of perspectives, philosophies, and principles of critical and ethical thinking which will equip you with the competencies and confidence to achieve your academic and employability goals.

You will develop an understanding of sports fans, their motivations, experiences and interactions with sports clubs. It will ask you to consider how sport fan behaviour is regulated by different psycho-social factors such as involvement, identification, motivation, loyalty, as well as forms of social exclusion. You will examine how the unique relationship between fans and sports clubs has developed over time and explore some of the key issues underpinning this dynamic. This module will allow you to study sport through the intersection of sociological, psychological and marketing perspectives underpinning sports fan experience and behaviour. You will also develop your understanding of some of the methodologies underpinning market research and scholarly studies of sports fan behaviour, examining processes, variables and outcomes associated with sports fan behaviour research.

This module aims to enable you to demonstrate your understanding of the role of the accounting function in an organisation and the importance of internal controls in minimising the risk of loss. This module will build on the knowledge and understanding gained from Introduction to Sport Finance. Having taken this module, you will have gained a greater appreciation and understanding of the accounting system and the impact it has on all areas of an organisation. You will be introduced to a variety of internal controls designed to support the accounting system and reduce the chance of fraudulent activity by internal organisational stakeholders and external parties. In addition, you will also be introduced to the audit function (both internal and external) and how it supports the integrity of accounting information.

You will learn how different factors have influenced the development of the football business. It is essential that future students understand the framework within which all football-related institutions coexist and the unique role that clubs play in society which creates an environment that distinguishes football business from other industries.

As an international football business and relations professional you will find yourself working with various football organisations in a complex global environment (Confederations, Associations, Leagues, Clubs, agencies and associated businesses in the wider sports business ecosystem. This module analyses international football organisations from a functional perspective, considering the roles, operations and challenges impacting on the international business environment. The purpose of the module is to enable you to become more familiar with key international football business functions and indicators of the different confederations, football associations and leagues around the world, working in the global football ecosystem. You will be able to appraise, compare and question their challenges. You will also be able to identify opportunities and their connection with their respective business environments.

This module will develop financial accounting skills from your Level 4 studies. This unit equips you with the financial accounting techniques to prepare income statements and statements of financial position with year-end adjustments, such as depreciation and amortisation, accruals and prepayments, revaluation and bad debt write offs. You will also be introduced to preparing a statement of cash flow and how this statement differs from an income statement and statement of financial position. You will also be introduced to more advanced methods of ratio analysis in the context of financial performance, position, liquidity and solvency analysis. You will be expected to comment on ethical issues in Financial Reporting around the IASs, such as window dressing (including major case studies), misuse of accounting policies (eg recognition of non-current asset values) and the importance of audits, as well as the effectiveness of regulation in financial reporting.

Following on from your previous training regarding personal qualities and behaviours that can impact your ability to succeed, this module focuses on developing your practical skills relevant to a workplace environment. This module will ask you to apply your knowledge and personal skillset to problem-based learning scenarios, and live projects. You will learn project management skills, develop your personal pragmatism, and enhance your industry-based interests and understanding. You will work both as part of a team and independently, developing essential aspects of your emotional, social, and professional self.

As a practitioner in your discipline you will be required to engage in evidence-based practice. This module supports your ability to become an evidence-based practitioner by providing you with an introduction to the processes involved in conducting research within your discipline and equipping you with the skills and knowledge to be able to critically analyse the work of others. This module will build on skills and knowledge which you will have acquired throughout your course so far, and has been designed to prepare you for conducting your own independent project as part of the Professional Project module at Level 6. Specifically, this module will enable you to gain an applied understanding of the research process. This will involve identifying a contemporary industry-relevant issue; developing project aims and objectives; understanding reflexivity and the role you play in the design and execution of a project; understanding methodologies and different methods of data collection, analysis, and interpretation; and appreciating the importance of ethical practice. The delivery of this module will be facilitated by your engagement in a research project to investigate contemporary industry-relevant issues.

This module completes a general coverage of the core management accounting concepts, skills and techniques. It also provides a useful set of concepts, skills and techniques for all potential managers in organisations, for those who wish knowledge and skills beyond cost management applications. The module focuses on the use of accounting information in facilitating and influencing managerial decisions in organisations, with particular focus on the growing and evolving sporting industry. You will be introduced to the use of management accounting information to support managerial decisions and control various aspects of an organisation. It emphasises decision and control issues in a contemporary environment and introduces appropriate decision and control concepts, techniques and skills. It also emphasizes the ways in which accounting information can be used to understand and make decisions about the operational and strategic management of an organisation, and to control the implementation and ongoing management of such decisions.

Entrepreneurship is more a state of mind than an actual discipline. It involves the full gamut of business knowledge and skills, commonly taught on business related courses. You will develop a business idea within a group. To realise this idea, you will produce a pitch deck which will be presented to an investment panel. Based on feedback and comments from the panel you will then produce a business plan. There is also an increasing need for innovative and entrepreneurial thinking in a wide range of industries. This practical focused module will therefore also provide you with the skills and knowledge from the world of business underpinned by relevant theories and models to help you succeed in a variety of careers. The ultimate aim of this module is to give you a realistic and viable alternative career opportunity establishing and running your own business.

Studying this module will develop your knowledge and appreciation of strategic management in different organisational and environmental settings. You will learn how strategic thinking and planning is applied within football (grassroots/professional) and sporting ecosystems. You will also be able to critically evaluate how leadership approaches support strategy expectations. The module will provide you with theoretical concepts and relevant tools for undertaking strategic analyses, considering strategic choices and making strategic recommendations for any sports related organisation.

In this module you will critically analyse the internationalisation of football business through the rise of the sports-based multi-national company. You will examine why a business may want to undertake foreign direct investment and how that can be financed. The module will consider the inherent risks a business faces when establishing itself in the international marketplace and the potential barriers that may need to be overcome. As a result of the module you will be able to evaluate the methods employed to reduce risk whilst maximising returns. You will explore financial management techniques including investment appraisal practices as well as have the opportunity to review common corporate finance theories, concepts, and practices. In addition, this module presents an opportunity to analyse, review and assess the impact of international trade and investment has on the financial strategies of sports brands.

This module provides you with the opportunity to synthesise the knowledge and skills you will have developed during the course of your studies and independently design, develop and execute an individual professional project. This project aims to investigate an original contemporary industry-relevant issue and will be a platform through which you will demonstrate the knowledge, skills, understanding and expertise you have developed in your discipline thus far. It is expected that your project output will contribute to industry practice and/or academic and practitioner knowledge. To achieve this, you will investigate an original contemporary industry-relevant issue and make judgments on the basis of sound evidence and therefore, the project will be research- and inquiry-based. The project will be directly relevant to your course and will be produced and disseminated in the format best suited to the project aims and to developing a career of your choice. The project will build on the L5 Research Methods assessment and you will be working closely with a project supervisor who will provide guidance and support throughout your project.

Following on from your previous training regarding personal qualities and behaviours that can impact your ability to succeed, this module focuses on practical application of that knowledge during a workplace visit. Until now, your modules have provided learning opportunities about the industry and societal context in which you plan to work. This module aims to introduce you to a workplace environment. Doing so will allow you to enhance your awareness of the industrial landscape through experience. This module creates a space for you to apply competencies developed in your modules to date to a real-life setting, leading to experiential and reflective learning.

This module will stimulate discussion and debate around how financial managers in football and sports industries oversee their business operations from a variety of perspectives. The theories used in short and long term financial management techniques will be examined and you will consider how to apply these methods appropriately. Theoretical concepts about financial management and appraisal techniques will be applied and discussed in case studies based on football and other sports clubs. The underlying accounting principles of business consolidations will be covered in depth, allowing students to prepare consolidated financial statements with relevant adjustments.

This module will provide you with the opportunity to identify the skills, competencies and experience required for successful development to embarking on their university degree and successfully completing it and progressing on to a range of potential future career areas. Central to the developmental process is for you to cultivate the reflective skills, openness and self- awareness to enable you to assess what you are doing, identify areas for improvement, and confidently receive and give constructive feedback.

This module will provide you with the opportunity to identify the skills, competencies and experience required for employment. This will support you in your ‘transition’ from school, college or the work place towards degree level study. You will begin to recognise the areas for your own personal professional development (including emotional, social, physical, cultural and cognitive intelligences) through taught and workshop activities. This will allow you identify attributes that are important to develop that are important for your career in the sports professional related to your programme.

The module will introduce you to the research processes when undertaking a project within your field of study. You will explore the important ethical considerations when planning and conducting a research project safely to analyse a problem or question specific to your subject area. This will require you to utilise and apply key research skills alongside selecting appropriate methods to collect data and report significant findings regarding your research question.

This module introduces you to many of the challenging and complex contemporary issues faced in the rapidlychanging and demanding, world of sport. It will allow you to build and consolidate knowledge, through understanding of key issues within the broad arena of sport in a discursive manner that will underpin your future work. You will be encouraged to research events, themes and issues that have affected the world of sport and, in some cases, changed the structure and behaviour of the sports industry.

This module will introduce you to the framework within football finances and the decision-making process of clubs, players and agents while applying this to the context of international football. You will examine key principles of leadership styles in management. This will allow you to identify and develop management knowledge and understandings. You will analyse which leadership styles are considered to be successful in the business management of others.

This module will introduce you to the foundations towards a range of concepts and models related to understanding and managing people, work and behaviour in national and international football related organisations. In order to identify and explain how clubs operate and are organised from a commercial and sporting perspective, while preparing an interactive resource (eg. Podcast, website, visual or audio resource) undertaking an examination of a clubs use of the marketing function to engage with audiences.