Over the last two years, the International Center for Sports Studies (CIES) has been creating partnerships with African universities, an extension of its academic network that forms part of FIFA's 'Win in Africa with Africa' programme. The goal is to ensure that the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ leaves a concrete and fertile legacy for the continent's younger generations.

In more explicit terms, the CIES is offering Africa's future sports administrators an array of working tools in areas as diverse as law, finance, management, event-planning and marketing. It is essential these skills be adapted to specific local situations to ensure their usefulness, which is where the CIES' partners can provide invaluable support. Their objective is to ensure the courses do not become an abstract academic pursuit but instead train students to oversee national-level sport in a concrete and effective manner.

The CIES organised its first African sports management programme in 2006, in collaboration with the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal. The course brought together more than 50 students from a wide range of sports and socio-economic backgrounds. Partnerships have also been forged in South Africa with the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth and Pretoria's University of South Africa, with the latter handed the task of teaching the course by correspondence to Africa's Anglophone nations. The CIES is also in negotiations at present to launch a training programme in Egypt in 2008.

A further goal of these partnerships is to place all the students involved in contact with each other through a strong alumni network, which will give Africans the possibility to exchange information and share experiences not only at a continental level but also at a global one. Indeed, the CIES will extend the network to its current partners elsewhere - such as the Universidad Catolica Argentina in Buenos Aires and the Universidad Santo Tomas de Santiago in Chile - as well as its future partners in Central America, Asia and Oceania.

"Thanks to FIFA, the CIES is happy to be taking part in the creation of a dynamic, international, academic network," commented CIES President Jean-Louis Juvet. "At a time when sport is one of society's major forces - for better or for worse - it is essential we carry out our work to ensure it is managed effectively, while retaining all its dignity and power to attract."