On Friday, April 6, at its last session in Nyon, Switzerland, participants in the fourth edition of MESGO received their diplomas. The MESGO Masters Degree in European Sports Management is a joint development of the Birkbeck College, the University of London, the Center for Law and Economics of Sport (CDES), Limoges University (France), Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz (Germany) (INEFC Barcelona), University of Leida (Spain) and Lausanne Higher Institute of Economics (HEC Lausanne, Switzerland).

Partners of the sport program are the European Volleyball Confederation, the European Handball Federation, the International Basketball Federation, Rugby Europe, the International Ice Hockey Federation and UEFA. The program is geared to the top management staff of sports organizations and aims to regularly bring together top executives and experts from leading European institutes in academia to prepare new-generation experts whose multi-faceted and comprehensive knowledge of the subject matter serves to advance the sport in Europe.

For over a year and a half, the participants selected for a number of criteria studied, worked and shared experiences on all aspects of sport management and sport governance. Deputy Executive Director of the Bulgarian Football Union, Pavel Kolev, in whose professionalism UEFA and the Bulgarian Federation have invested, was among the most active participants in the thematic sessions held in Paris (Context of International Sport), Lausanne, Nyon and Geneva (Sporting Organization Management), Amsterdam (Structure and Regulation of Competition), Brussels (Legal Frameworks), London (Strategic Marketing), Barcelona (Sporting Events), Mainz and Frankfurt (Ethics), New York (North American Model) and Tokyo (The Future of Sport Management). At the end of the last week, in Nyon, the Bulgarian representative successfully defended his diploma thesis "Competitive Balance in the Balkan Leagues – Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Croatia".

For the Bulgarian Football Union and the sports community in the country, working with a professional, possessing expert qualifications at European level is a pride and a necessity in order to  increase the administrative capacity of the assciation. We recall that Kolev was among the first to receive UEFA's football management certificate and diploma after successfully completing the programs between 2011-2013. The Bulgarian Football Union strives to provide its staff with opportunities for personal development and believes in the constant progress of both the organization and its representatives.