DOHA: Josoor Institute yesterday facilitated a day-long masterclass for the clubs and management of the Qatar Stars League (QSL) at the Torch hotel in Doha.
Delegates from the QSL and club representatives attended the event to gain practical, hands-on experience and guidance from Everton Football Club’s community engagement team on developing a fan-base, building a strong presence in the community and establishing a successful club brand.
Everton FC’s CEO Robert Elstone was joined by Dr Denise Barrett-Baxendale, Everton in the Community Chief Executive Officer and Deputy Chief Executive of the club, and Ryan Bowd, Director of Education at Josoor Institute, to deliver the classes.
Sessions covered the key principles of effective community engagement, guidelines on how to run a ‘community club’, building great fan experiences before, during and after match-day, effective marketing strategies and a case study on Everton FC’s ‘super community project’.
Everton FC is one of the English Premier League’s most successful clubs in establishing a strong and sustainable culture of engagement with fans and is widely recognised as a model of how to work in the community. Its players put in among the most hours of charity work of all English clubs, its community programme has received a national award and it has one of the strongest fan-bases in the Premier League.
Khalifa Saleh Al Haroon, QSL’s Executive Director of Marketing and Communications, said: “Qatar Stars League invests in extensive community outreach activities across Qatar that aim to engage the local community in football through fun and entertaining ways. Gaining valuable insight into how we can best leverage these opportunities so more people fall in love with the game and get behind our local teams was a truly inspiring opportunity. We look forward to implementing what we’ve learned so that our outreach programmes impact the lives of as many people as possible.”
This marked the second visit by Elstone in recent months after he participated in a course titled ‘Business of Football’, organised by Josoor Institute in October.
Commenting on yesterday’s programme, Elstone said: “As part of our model, our community engagement team aims to use the power of sport to motivate, educate and inspire people in local communities.
“We hope the information we have shared with participants from the Qatar Stars League enables them to engage effectively with their communities through a variety of initiatives ranging from a focus on health and wellbeing, youth engagement, fund-raising, sport development and employment to education and training.”
Mushtaq Al Waeli, Executive Director (acting) of Josoor Institute, highlighted the importance of the master class and said, “As we celebrate our first year of operations, completing this one-day masterclass is extremely significant for us.
“In many ways it represents the best of Josoor Institute and our role in bringing together international expertise with local, professional talent to produce successful sporting events both here in Qatar and around the Middle East and North Africa region. With our courses attended by more than 800 delegates from the sports and events industries in Qatar and the MENA region during this past year, we’re extremely pleased with the progress we and our institutional partners have made.” THE PENINSULA
