A passionate rugby player who was born and bred in South Africa wants to bring equal opportunities to all in sport, and he hopes his FIFA Master course at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) will help him achieve that.
Stuart Winship moved to England 10 years ago and he has huge ambitions to make a difference in world sport.
The one year FIFA Master course, supported by football’s world governing body, involves students dedicating a term of study each at the International Centre for Sports History and Culture (ICSHC) here at DMU, the SDA Bocconi School of Management in Milan, Italy, and the University of Neuchâtel, in Switzerland.
Stuart said: “I am looking forward to the opportunity to learn and develop on this course. My passion and focus is on Rugby Union. I want to look at grass roots rugby and ensure there are equal opportunities for all in sport.
“Like anywhere in society there are your haves and have-nots. In order to reach out to everybody you need a lot of resource, a lot of people and a lot of finance. At the moment we just don’t have enough people to achieve that. To turn that into a reality would be a dream come true for me.”
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Stuart moved to the UK 10 years ago and lives in Windsor. He studied a degree in nearby Loughborough, so he knows his way around Leicester and has visited Leicester Tigers’ Welford Road ground.
“I am already known in the group as “the consultant” because of my knowledge of the UK and Leicester, so they are looking to me to show them around.
“There is a real community feel in Leicester. You can tell everyone who lives here has a lot of pride in what has been achieved in the city.
“It’s an honour and privilege to be in Leicester and I am proud to be part of what is an exceptional course with an exceptional group of people to learn from and develop with.”
Previous graduates from the FIFA Master, which this year was named the No.1 course in Europe by SportBusiness International for an unprecedented fifth time in their global sports management course rankings, have gone on to work with global brands such as UEFA, Manchester United, Manchester City and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Alumni include South Korea’s former Manchester United midfielder Park Ji-Sung, Japan’s 2006 World Cup Captain, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Women’s Champions League winner, Ami Otaki and New Zealand rower Emma Twigg, who was ranked world number one while studying at DMU.
Students from Brazil, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, South Africa and most places in between said they had been hugely impressed by the DMU campus and the city of Leicester, as well as the course.
In their first week of study they have already taken in the Leicester City v Liverpool Caraboa Cup match, which Leicester City won 2-0 at the King Power Stadium, and been on a study trip to Wimbledon. They have also started their lectures which are based around the history of sport.
Profiles of some of the international students studying the FIFA Master at DMU will appear every day this week
Posted on Wednesday 27 September 2017