Learn about the modern game at UCFB with the MSc Football Science degree inside the Etihad Stadium
The professional football industry has seen a huge increase in stats-based performance data over the last decade.
The likes of Prozone was at first shunned by the elite, who believed good scouting and training ground preparation was the only road to success.
But increasingly football has become a numbers game with players analysed not just for the amount of running they do in a game but also in practice. A player’s blood pressure, the weights they lift, the calories they eat and the hours they sleep are analysed to the smallest degree, to the point where a collection of managers and trainers now pick their teams based on the numbers produced.
Often derided for his unstylish brand of football, current Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce was among the first in the English leagues to embrace such data.
The film Moneyball was based on the true story of the Oaklands Athletic baseball team building a record-breaking side based on a numeric approach to scouting and analysing players. A similar model has been used in English football by the likes of Liverpool and Brentford.
At UCFB, a world first in higher education which offers university degrees and executive education in the football, sport and events industries in its iconic campuses at Wembley Stadium, London, the Etihad Stadium, Manchester, and Turf Moor, Burnley, students can learn all of this and more on the MSc Football Science course.
The unique programme, which is based at the world class UCFB Etihad Campus within the Eithad Stadium, encompasses the core activities, performance affecting understanding and overall job responsibilities for the sports science practitioner in professional football.
Modules include Football Analytics, Injury Prevention, Nutrition for Training and Performance and the Psychological Health of a Footballer.
A key aspect of the course for students will be the unprecedented access to leading figures within the game, including Manchester United’s Tony Strudwick, who’s an honorary external lecturer on the programme. Tony has been on a meteoric rise during his time at the club. He joined in 2007 as a fitness coach, before being appointed by manager Louis Van Gaal as head of athletic development at the Premier League giant in 2014.
Performance analysis masterclasses on the course are offered by Hull City assistant manager Mike Phelan, who was previously assistant to former Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson.
Completing the line-up is Eamonn Salmon, chief executive of The Football Medical Association, who support all medical and scientific practitioners within UK professional football in a personal and working capacity.
Leading the programme is David Horracks. With a highly distinguished academic background in sports psychology, David is currently working with two high-flying football clubs in the Premier League and Football League Championship, as well as in European Tour Golf.
Graduates of the MSc Football Science programme will be awarded degrees by UCFB’s esteemed academic partner institution, The University of Northampton.
