Run the club
Teams appoint a managing director and take the senior seats. Strategy, finance, contracts and people, handled live with real constraints.
Leadership training that puts your team in charge.
The Management Game is a live three-day simulation. Your cohort takes the senior seats of a professional club, handles an escalating crisis, defends its decisions to a C-suite panel, and takes the podium for an on-camera press conference, judged by people who have run clubs and leagues for real.
Delivered since 2007 · 90%+ satisfaction · 500+ leaders through the programme
The programme
Football is the arena. Leadership is the subject.
Nothing taught from the outside: your people hold the seats and make the calls, in front of everyone.
Make the calls
Round by round the stakes rise: a contract negotiation goes live, the finances tighten, the media want answers, and one crisis breaks over dinner at an exclusive London club.
Face the cameras
It ends with an assessed board defence in a TV-studio boardroom, then a live press conference with playback review.
How a round works
The programme runs in rounds. Each one follows the same loop, and each one raises the stakes.
-
The briefing lands
A scenario hits your desk. Time is short.
-
Your team decides
Argue it out, commit, and own the call.
-
Consequences hit
The club, the fans and the finances react.
-
Your calls follow you
Every decision resurfaces in the Day Three board defence.
Please note: no football knowledge is needed. Football is the scenario; leadership is the subject.
The simulation
Three days, start to finish
A specimen shape: the programme flexes to your cohort as a five-day intensive or two to three day modules, up to 80% on-site, in the UK or in-country.
-
Day 1
Foundations
Take the seat, learn the terrain.
- Teams appoint their Managing Director
- Fireside with a leader who has held the seat
- Reading a football balance sheet: PSR and the cost of ambition
- A live squad decision with competing sporting and financial demands
- Round One opens over dinner
-
Day 2
Escalating crisis
The stakes rise into the night.
- Ownership, vision and strategy, pressure-tested
- Operations, governance and the legal exposure behind board decisions
- A live contract negotiation under pressure
- Round Two over dinner at an exclusive London club; a crisis breaks mid-dinner
-
Day 3
The finale
Defend it all on camera.
- Media relations: facing hostile questions at executive level
- Assessed board defence in a TV-studio boardroom
- A live, on-camera press conference with playback review
- A real matchday from executive hospitality, watched through a leadership lens
- Wrap-up, reflection and the prize for the winning team and its MD
What you leave with
Discuss a programme- A board decision defended on the record
- A reviewed media performance
- A personalised leadership debrief
- Academic credit on MBA and EMBA pathways where required
Built to transfer
Built to travel back to any sector you lead in
You don't need to work in football. The industry compresses the pressures every senior leader faces into three observable days, and the judgement you build travels back to whichever sector you lead in.
- Crisis command in real time
- Decisions on incomplete information
- Stakeholder, media and people management
On the record
Defend your decisions under real pressure
- Every decision defended to a C-suite panel
- A live press conference you did not script
- Your media performance reviewed on playback
Choose your route
The four pathways
One methodology, delivered four ways: choose the route that fits your programme, from a credit-bearing academic capstone to a bespoke board-level deep dive.
MBA / Executive MBA credit
A credit-bearing capstone for global MBA and EMBA cohorts: governance, finance and strategy under pressure, marked live by a C-suite panel.
EnquireCorporate deep dive
The pressure of a matchday without the consequences of one: scenarios built around your sector, your risks and the calls your leaders actually face.
EnquireInternational study
The British football model for delegations, universities and study-abroad programmes: the world’s most global league as a live case in brand, governance and growth.
EnquireAspiring executives
For leaders outside the industry: crisis command, stakeholder management and decisions on incomplete information, pressures that translate to any high-consequence sector.
Enquire Why Praxis
We are the people who develop leaders.
Praxis Sports College is a practitioner-led centre for executive education. We work with business schools, corporate learning teams, and sports and investment organisations, in the UK and especially across Asia: an assessed module inside the programmes you already run, never off the shelf.
The problem with most leadership training
- Case studies are safe. Nobody sweats, so nothing sticks.
- Anything scripted can be prepped, or handed to AI.
- People only show how they lead when the pressure is real.
What your people come away with
- Evidence of how each person performs under pressure.
- Judgement tested by people who have run clubs and leagues.
- A personalised leadership debrief for every participant.
- A programme shaped around your cohort and objectives.
Practitioner-led, not theory-led
Designed, led and assessed by people who have run clubs, leagues and campuses.
Proven for over 20 years
Co-founded at the University of Liverpool, with 500+ students and executives through it.
Real rooms, real consequence
Played out in the boardrooms of professional football stadia: the real rooms where these calls are made.
Shaped around your cohort
Scenarios, faculty and assessment built for your sector, with credit on MBA routes.
Why it works
It cannot be prepped, googled or handed to AI.
It runs live, in front of real people, and you are judged on how you respond in the moment. If AI could pass it, it wouldn’t be assessing leadership.
- delivered globally since*
- 2007
- participant satisfaction*
- 90%+
- leaders through the programme*
- 500+
*Programme heritage of the Management Game, on which Praxis Sports College is built.
The six pressures every session loads: strategy, finance, crisis, media, people and governance. The same pressures, whatever the sector.
Meet the team
Designed, led and assessed by people who have held the seat
People who have run clubs, leagues and campuses, not lectured about them from the outside. On the day, your work is marked live by a C-suite panel, with serving club executives, journalists and advisers joining sessions as guest voices.
Dr Roger Levermore
Co-Founder & Programme Lead
Helped create and deliver the programme at the University of Liverpool Management School, where he served as a programme director for eleven years. Senior roles across Asia followed, including Dean of the School of Management at the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok.
Neil Doncaster
Group Chief Executive, SPFL
One of the most experienced senior executives in professional football, with 25+ years at club, league, national and European level. Chief Executive of Norwich City at 31; the only person to have sat on the boards of both the English and Scottish FAs.
Professor Philip Wilson
Chair of the Board, Burnley Football Club (Community Trust)
Previously Chair of a Paralympic NGB for the Tokyo cycle, Co-Founder and Provost & CEO of UCFB, the world’s leading football business university grown from Burnley’s Turf Moor to Wembley Stadium and Manchester’s Etihad Campus. Founded the University Campus of Esports.
All three share one belief: leadership is learned by doing.
From the room
They took the seat. Here’s what stuck.
A faculty view
“Participants quickly discover that effective leadership is not simply about choosing the right option, but about aligning teams, communicating clearly, and managing the consequences of those decisions. It remains one of the most effective experiential approaches I have seen for developing practical executive capability.”
“One of the most memorable parts of my MBA. It pushed me beyond theory to think on my feet.”
“Simulating CEO decision-making was one of the most practical parts of my programme. It sharpened how I approach trade-offs and helped me distil what really matters.”
“By operating within a senior leadership team, I was pushed to move past a narrow functional focus. Effective strategy lies beyond analysis, in collective alignment and sound intuition.”
“Leadership effectiveness is often defined not by the decision itself, but by how it is explained, coordinated and executed across an organisation.”
“What made the experience particularly valuable was how it highlighted the importance of coordination and communication across functions, not just the quality of the decision itself.”
Common questions
Before you ask
Do participants need to know anything about football?
No. Football is the backdrop, not the subject. It was chosen because it compresses the pressures every senior leader faces into three observable days: strategy, finance, crisis, media, people and governance. You don’t need to work in football to belong in the room.
Is this training for a career in football?
No. The Management Game is executive leadership education that happens inside a football setting. The skills being built and assessed are general ones: judgement under pressure, communication, stakeholder management and decision-making on incomplete information.
What actually happens across the three days?
Teams appoint a managing director and take the senior seats of a simulated professional club. Scenarios escalate in rounds through strategy, finance, contracts and a live crisis. It ends with an assessed board defence in a TV-studio boardroom and an on-camera press conference with playback review.
Where does it run?
Inside the boardrooms and executive suites of professional football stadia in the UK: the real rooms where these calls are made, not a hotel conference suite. The programme also travels, delivered in the UK or in-country as a five-day intensive or two to three day modules, up to 80% on-site.
How is it assessed?
Live, by people who have run clubs and leagues. Your team defends its decisions to a C-suite panel, your media performance is reviewed on playback, and everyone leaves with a personalised leadership debrief. On MBA and EMBA pathways the programme is assessed and credit-bearing where required.
What does it cost?
Every programme is bespoke: the price depends on your cohort size, format and location. Tell us your cohort and preferred dates through the form below and we will come back with a proposal.
Can I take part as an individual?
The Management Game currently runs for organised cohorts. If you would like to take part personally, choose "Keep me informed" in the form below and we will be in touch as open cohorts launch.
Discuss a programme
Put your team in the seat.
Tell us your cohort and objectives, and we will build the room around them.
Three days. Six pressures. One decision defended live, on the record, in front of people who have held the seat.
-
Enquire. Your cohort, preferred dates and goals.
-
Design. We shape scenarios, faculty and assessment around them.
-
Deliver. Three days, in the UK or your city, debrief included.
Prefer email or a call?
info@praxissportscollege.co.uk ·
+66 61 401 8505
Thank you for your enquiry
Hi there, thank you for contacting us about your programme. A member of the Praxis team will get back to you as soon as possible regarding your enquiry.
A confirmation email is on its way to your inbox.
Download the prospectus while you wait