Julie Harrington joined The FA in March 2012 as Managing Director of St. George’s Park. She came to the team from her post as Operations Director at Northern Racing where she spent eight years. Now considered an esteemed figure within The FA, Julie has the impressive job of managing its multi-million pound complex and around 350 members of staff.

Although horse racing has dominated Julie’s career, football is her first love. In just a few years she has seen the successful launch of Burton’s branch of the national football centre for...

The beautiful game it may be, but sometimes a legal wrangle or issue can creep into the world of football. Thankfully, there are professional, qualified solicitors specialising in the game to call upon whenever this happens. One of the most prominent of these is Daniel Geey, a senior associate in Fieldfisher’s Competition and EU Regulatory Law Group.

Daniel has plenty of experience in football legality, covering everything from takeover issues to workers’ rights and competition law with regard to broadcasting. Other...

A leading light in Scottish football, Neil Doncaster joined the UCFB as an advisory board member in 2013. As Chief Executive of the Scottish Professional Football League, he certainly has a strong history with UK football.

A qualified solicitor, Neil’s career in football began when he joined Norwich City in 1997 as company secretary and solicitor. His enterprising streak showed through as he quickly moved up the ranks to Head of Operations, before taking up the role of Chief Executive in 2001.

Whilst at Norwich...

Hailing from a illustrious career in sports journalism, Niall Sloane has been at the forefront of British Sport broadcasting for almost 30 years. Working for the BBC for several decades, he now heads up ITV’s sports programming.

A passion for football began at an early age – Niall grew up in Northern Ireland and played for his local team Portadown where he was voted Young Footballer of the Year. Moving to England, he undertook a short stint with Sheffield Wednesday before deciding that the game of professional...

Peter Salmon, Director, England at the BBC, and Ian Haythornthwaite, Director of Finance at the BBC, gave an insightful guest lecture to UCFB Burnley students.

British Olympian and Founder of the Great North Run, Brendan Foster, gave an inspirational talk to UCFB Burnley students.

Brendan Foster won the bronze medal for the 10,000m in the Montreal Olympics in 1976 and broke the Olympic record for the 5,000m in the same year. Brendan went on to set World Records over 2 miles and 3,000m. He also won three medals in three consecutive Commonwealth Games, culminating in the gold medal at Edmonton 1978, and has two European Championships...

Accomplished international trainer, speaker and author, Simon Clarkson delivered the first  of three instalments to UCFB Burnley students.

Simon started out trading commodities and working as an Investment Banker at Barclays. He quickly realised his expertise and passion lay elsewhere, encouraging him to begin his own personal journey, delving into the world of High Performance Thinking. Simon’s pragmatic and inspirational style aims to generate energy for both personal and organisational change and the results of his work range from substantial to...

UCFB Wembley students, staff and alumni were granted a once in a lifetime opportunity to play on the hallowed turf at Wembley Stadium.

It is the dream of every football fan around the world and yesterday it was realised by over 100 UCFB Wembley students who played a series of matches on the world-famous Wembley pitch. The first ever UCFB Wembley Pitch Day allowed students, staff and alumni to take to field in the iconic stadium that has hosted Champions League...

A record sell-out crowd of 55,000 fans watched history happen as England took on Germany in a Women’s International Friendly at Wembley Stadium.

It was the first women’s international match at the new Wembley Stadium since the home of football reopened in 2007, and it was marked by a key event at UCFB. In partnership with She Kicks, UCFB Wembley hosted an event to celebrate the role of women within the football business and sports industries. Guests included representatives from various FA...

Congratulations to Mike Phelan, new First Team Coach at Norwich City.

We are delighted to congratulate Mike Phelan, member of the UCFB Advisory Board on his new role as First Team Coach at Norwich City. Former Manchester United Assistant Manager has a strong connection with Norwich City, making 194 appearances in four years as a player and working closely with Gary Megson at the club during the 1995-96 season.  Mike has gained decades of experience both on and off the pitch,...