Advances in Physical Education
2012. Vol.2, No.4, 179-186
Published Online November 2012 in SciRes (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/ape) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ape.2012.24031
Digital Sport-Management Games and Their Contribution to
Prospective Sport-Managers’ Competence Development
Rolf Kretschmann
Department of Sport and Exercise Science, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
Received July 18th, 2012; revised August 20th, 2012; accepted September 2nd, 2012
The immersive and engaging characteristics of digital games are leading current pedagogical discussions
about digital media. Game scientists, (pedagogical) researches, and practitioners continue to attempt to
embed digital games in pedagogical settings. They consider these games to be so called serious games.
The idea of serious games is that a digital game is not only played for fun and entertainment, but to em-
ploy the specific game-play for serious learning processes and outcomes in a specific field of learning or
work. Hence, the question arises, whether a digital sport-management game can assist prospective sport
managers and students of sport management at the introduction to this complex field of work. To tackle
the research question, it is necessary to investigate the profession of sport managers in “real” life and
compare the game-play of a digital sport management game to them. Therefore, the best selling and most
famous so-called commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) game FIFA Manager 09 by EA Sports is picked to be
the subject of analysis. “Virtual” sport-manager competencies were compared to “real-world” sport-
manager competencies to find any matching. As a result, there actually is a high congruence between
sport-management competence-models and the digital game’s game-play.
Keywords: Digital Sport Games; Game-Based Learning; Serious Games; Sport Computer Games; Sport
Pedagogy; Sport Management; Transfer of Learning
Introduction
Football is undoubtedly one of the most popular fields of
sport in the world. Among other things this is shown through its
omnipresent appearance in global mass media and sport report-
ing. Almost anybody has got at least something to say about
that sport. Thinking of one’s wide circle of friends, one will
surely find someone who is into football or at least has got an
opinion on the specific action in this field of work and how
professionals should act therein. This apparent need of outsid-
ers to advise actors within a specific field (e.g., soccer/football,
and other popular sports) can also be observed in the field of
politics.
Being a sport manager is professionalized as being a politi-
cian. Higher education offers degrees in sport management,
which even has become a distinct sub-discipline of sport sci-
ence containing scientific theory, content and methodology.
Therefore, studying sport management reveals the complex
structure of the field of work in question, which may appear
quite simple in every-day life.
At this point, digital games and the idea of using them as se-
rious games come in. The idea of serious games is that a digital
game is not only played for fun and entertainment, but to em-
ploy the specific game-play for serious learning processes and
outcomes within a specific field of learning or work. Prensky
(2001, 2006) developed a pedagogical framework for this idea,
calling it digital game-based learning (DGBL).
Integrating sport management and digital games, the question
arises, whether a digital sport management game can introduce
prospective sport managers and students of sport management
to this complex field.
To approach the research question, it is necessary to investi-
gate the tasks of a sport manager in real life and compare the
game-play and tasks of a digital sport management game to
them. Therefore, the best selling and most famous so called
commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) game among sport manage-
ment games is picked to be the subject of analysis, namely
FIFA Manager 09, developed and published by EA Sports.
FIFA Manager 09 offers tasks and options, which are compara-
ble in complexity to the scope of real world decision-making.
The digital game therefore may be employed to foster transfer
of learning (Gee, 2003).
The aim of the paper is to investigate whether playing a digi-
tal game might provide beneficial learning processes and out-
comes. Is the digital game pedagogically worthy of considera-
tion for being recognized for educating prospective sport mana-
gers?
For this purpose, the profession of a sport manager needs to
be described to set the informational basis for argumentation.
Thereafter, sport management games have to be defined, too. A
following game-play analysis of FIFA Manager 09 intends to
lead to an insight of the inner structure of this digital game. The
results of this game-play analysis will allow a comparison of
digital sport-manager competencies and “real” sport-manager
competencies using sport management competence-models as
comparison criteria. Experts, in this case, MA students of sport
management will do the rating.
Methods
The Profession of a Sport Manager
Sport management is a relatively young academic discipline

R. KRETSCHMANN
(Chalip, 2006). It is both a sub-discipline of sport science and
business (and management) studies. Sport management refers
to “all people, activities, businesses, and organizations involved
in producing, facilitating, promoting, or organizing any product
that is sport, fitness, and recreation related” (Pitts & Stotlar,
2002: p. 4). “Sport management programs train people for
management positions in such areas as college athletics, profes-
sional teams, fitness centers, recreational centers, coaching,
officiating, marketing, youth organizations, and sporting goods
manufacturing and retailing” (Lussier & Kimball, 2009: p. 4).
Appenzeller and Lewis (2000) structure the fields of sport
management into six parts: 1) human resource management; 2)
program management; 3) marketing management; 4) facility
and event management; and 5) legal management.
Further descriptions of the sport manager profession can also
be found at Lussier and Kimball (2009): Sport managers have
to deal with several resources: 1) human resources; 2) financial
resources; 3) physical resources; and 4) informational resources.
Sport managers need to have a set of skills: 1) technical skills; 2)
people skills; 3) communication skills; 4) conceptual skills; and
5) decision-making-skills. Moreover, sport managers plan,
organize, lead, and control, which correspond to the four (sport)
management functions: 1) planning; 2) organizing; 3) leading;
and 4) controlling.
Parks et al. (1988) modeled sport-management task-clusters
which combine general sport management tasks with organiza-
tion and information management. General sport management
tasks show up in the fields: 1) marketing and sales; 2) corre-
spondence; 3) public speaking; 4) community relations; and 5)
record keeping. Special tasks emerge from organization and
information management, Organization management tasks
contain: 1) budgeting; 2) accounting; 3) coordination; 4) man-
aging personnel; 5) managing facilities; 6) controlling; 7) di-
recting; 8) evaluating; and 9) leading. Information management
tasks contain: 1) writing; 2) selling; 3) working with media; 4)
developing publications; 5) keeping game notes and statistics; 6)
interviewing; 7) promoting; 8) advertising; and 9) fund-raising.
Hoff et al. (2007: p. 61) consider the following skills as ne-
cessary for success in sport management (according to Patter-
son & Allen, 1996): “1) computer literacy in all types of tech-
nology; 2) flexibility and adaptability to handle ever- changing
roles and management styles; 3) diversity in ability to function
and work with people from a broad range of ages, cultures, and
learning styles; 4) language skills—especially for the global
marketplace; 5) team players—networking and negotiating
skills a must; 6) learning skills and continuous reeducation; 7)
personal career planning skills (self assessment, inner worth,
current skills); 8) global awareness/orientation—knowledge of a
country and region as well as the culture of the people there; 9)
oral and written communication skills—become even more
valuable as corporations flatten; 10) people must be self-starters;
11) self-comfort—the company no longer defines the worker;
12) strong ethical framework; 13) environmental scanning
skills—knowing where your company is going, where the op-
portunities will be, see which direction to flex forward.”
Digital Sport-Management Games
In general management (education) research, there is little
emphasis on digital games to be found. Although role-playing
games and board games are a usual way to train (prospective)
managers (Corner et al., 2006; Faria, 1998; Salas et al., 2009;
Zwikael & Gonen, 2007), digital games are hardly traceable.
Traditional “analogue” simulations, (board) games, or role-
playing games are often transferred to an online version (Meisel
& Marx, 1999), but COTS games are of almost none interest so
far.
However, there is evidence that the potential of digital games
is recognized. Beck (2005 in Emerald Group Publishing Lim-
ited, 2004) highlights the decision-making and team-working
skills impact of digital games on upcoming managers (Beck &
Wade, 2004). In addition, the shift to a more computer-savvy
generation seems also to be recognized (Proserpio & Gioia,
2007).
Consulting research literature on digital games, one will sur-
prisingly notice that sport-management games like FIFA Man-
ager 09 are not covered in-depth. Research on genre of digital
sports-games is highly underrepresented. For instance, neither
Wolf (2005) nor Laird and van Lent (2005) allude to sport-
management games. Even Kayali and Purgathofer (2008), who
deal with digital sports-games explicitly, do not tackle sports-
management games at all. Only Kretschmann (2008, 2010)
dares to attempt a classification of digital sports-games and
develops a competence model for digital sports-games. He
differentiates between sport-simulation games, sport-arcade games,
and sport-management games.
“Sports management games are to be placed in the category
of role-playing games. The user (or player) assumes the lead-
ership of a sports club or an athlete and has to deal with all the
reality-based problems a person in that role has (e.g., econom-
ics and financials). Compared to sports simulations and sports
arcade games, sports management games have almost real-life
complexity but only from the view of a person in a leading
position. They do not allow the user to intervene in the specific
sports action ‘on the court’ by playing an athlete in certain
situations. Here are some examples: Box Sport Manager (box-
ing), FIFA Manager 09 (soccer), Football Manager 09 (soccer),
NFL Head Coach (American football)” (Kretschmann, 2010: p.
69).
Due to the fact that game developers update a sport-ma-
nagement game on a yearly basis, examples can be exchanged
and updated when a new version of a certain game is published.
Normally, the game’s essential game-idea and game-play re-
mains the same, only some features were added or revised.
Game-Play Anal ysi s of FIFA Manager 09
The sub-genre of sport-management games has not been of
much interest to game research yet, even though Becker (2007),
Dondi et al. (2004), Gee (2003), and Mitchell and Savill-Smith
(2004) focus on the pedagogical use of COTS computer and
video games in general. They do not differentiate sharply be-
tween genres or even certain games or game series. Actually,
Kirriemuir (2005) features certain COTS games, but did not
examine a sport-management game. McFarlane et al. (2002)
report positive learning outcomes and skill development by
playing various digital games, including the sport-management
game Championship Manager (football). Unfortunately, the
game was merged with other games of different genres, so that
the posited skill development cannot be attributed unambigu-
ously to Championship Manager.
In the serious-games paradigm a sport-management game
could be a good introduction to the field of work of prospective
sport-managers. Game-play analysis of FIFA Manager 09
180

R. KRETSCHMANN
should be a good start to test this hypothesis. Although the term
game-play is ambiguous, one can state some (wide) definitions.
Björk and Holopainen (2005: p. 3) define game-play as “the
structures of player interaction with the game system and with
other players in the game”, while Rollings and Adams (2007: p.
201) consider “one or more causally linked series of challenges
in a simulated environment” to define game-play. Integrating
the described approaches, game-play analysis simply means an
objective description of the possible actions that a player of a
digital game has while acting within the game or gaming envi-
ronment. Thus the following should serve as an informational
input and map for non-players of FIFA Manager 09.
In FIFA Manager 09 the player assumes the role of the man-
ager of a football club. The player can freely choose an avatar
and its attributes as name or face. He or she has to decide be-
tween various international football clubs all over the world,
considering whether to take a lower or higher league club. The
FIFA Manager 09 license includes real names of football clubs
and players. The game-play contains several areas of possible
acting. Aside from optional informational slides and options for
preferences, sounds, music, etc., the player can choose between
four main categories: 1) team; 2) transfer; 3) club; and 4) career.
Within each category one can find several sub-categories. For
team the player can choose seven topics: 1) news centre; 2)
calendar; 3) first team; 4) reserve team; 5) youth team; 6) train-
ing; and 7) dressing room chemistry. For transfers the player
can choose between five topics: 1) contracts; 2) staff; 3) trans-
fer market; 4) cooperation; and 5) scouting. For club the player
can choose between seven topics: 1) financial status; 2) stadium,
3) club facilities; 4) merchandising; 5) ticketing; 6) sponsoring;
and 7) achievements. For career the player can choose between
five topics: 1) my career; 2) personal life; 3) watch other
matches; and 4) career options.
The high degree of complexity of possible decision-making
can be illustrated by regarding decision-making options in the
exemplarily selected field team, specifically in the sub-category
dressing room chemistry. In order to keep it brief, only this one
example of game-play analysis with FIFA Manager 09 will be
given.
Confronted with the dressing room chemistry screen, the
player has several options to choose. He or she can talk to each
football player or the whole team and/or can make promises.
Depending on the position (e.g., goalkeeper or striker) the
player can choose up to ten different sentences to say to a foot-
ball player (e.g., “You’re in fantastic shape.”). Additionally, the
he or she can make promises to each football player (e.g., “You
are a first eleven player.” or “Don’t expect to play.”) and “spe-
cial promises” (e.g., “Next year I’ll make you captain.”). On
“team promises” the player can act within four areas: 1) season
objectives (e.g., “We’ll win the championship!”); 2) team (e.g.,
“Anyone who isn’t fit doesn’t play.”); 3) infrastructure (e.g.,
“The stadium will be extended.”); and 4) reserves (e.g., “We’ll
win promotion this season!”). The player’s decisions have an
impact on the mood and performance of each football player
and the whole team. Thus, the player’s decision-making process
gets immediate feedback by the digital game.
The selected example of dressing room chemistry stands for
more than 100 decision-making alternatives. According to all
the sub-categories within the four main categories the number
of possible decision-making options in the whole game in-
creases exponentially. The player can definitely spend hours
just for a first superficial adjustment on demanded decision-making
options in the game. Fine adjustment while playing a game
season will take additional time and careful consideration as
well. The combination of all possible (and therefore clickable)
decision-making options in FIFA Manager 09 reaches almost
real-life complexity, covering almost every relevant field of
sport-management decision-making.
For further information on the game, consultation of game re-
views is approved (e.g., Clifford, 2009; Korda, 2009). Profes-
sional computer and video game review-journals (printed or
online) can be a worthwhile source for information about a
game’s game-play from an experienced expert-gamer perspec-
tive.
Rating Strategy
The intended comparison of digital sport-management and
“real” sport-management needs criteria and a model to stick to.
Therefore, the theoretical background of academic sport-ma-
nagement will be coupled with the game-play analysis. Due to
practicality and manageability the desktop-menu (sub-) catego-
ries of FIFA Manager 09 will serve as the basic framework,
into which the models by Lussier and Kimball (2009), Parks et
al. (1988), and Hoff et al. (2007) are integrated. Knowing the
game and its game-play well enough, it seems relatively easy to
scan through the basic framework of FIFA Manager 09 and
check whether an aspect of the particular sport-management
model matches or not.
To exclude a personal, individual perspective by a single
rater who might be biased by previous knowledge and preju-
dices, three different raters analyzed FIFA Manger 09’s game-
play. A matching of a category is only reported if at least two
raters identify a positive matching in the particular model.
All raters were students in a MA program for sport manage-
ment and had experience both in playing digital sport-ma-
nagement games and “real” sport-managing through internships
in local first-league football clubs. Their career aspirations were
to finally be a professional sport manager in a professional
football club. As it is almost impossible to find sport managers
of first-league football clubs who belong to the so-called “digi-
tal natives” (Prensky, 2001), are therefore socialized by digital
games, and have the needed media literacy and academic back-
ground to attend in this kind of study, the focus group of MA
sport management students is a realistic one. Furthermore, it
won’t be easy to find current elite sport managers who have
experience in playing FIFA Manager 09.
The selected students are the closest focus group to profes-
sional sport managers that was available because internships
indicate a likely successful entering to the career in question
(Cunningham et al., 2005). The low number of raters was the
result of a low number of students of the MA program that
fulfilled the three conditions of: 1) having the aspiration in
becoming a sport manager of an elite football club; 2) having
already accomplished an internship at one of the targeted clubs;
and 3) having experience in computer and video games, espe-
cially in the FIFA Manager franchise.
The raters were briefly introduced into the three competence
models: Lussier and Kimball (2009), Hoff et al. (2007), and
Parks et al. (1988). They should match their gaming experience
(all raters have completed at least three seasons within the game)
with the selected competence models. The raters had to fill out
empty matrices (Tables 1-3) with a cross when they thought a
match occurs. The instruction was: “Match the game-play of

R. KRETSCHMANN
Table 1.
FIFA Manager 09 vs. Lussier & Kimbal (2009).
Planning Organizing Leading Controlling
News centre x
Calendar x x
First team x x x x
Reserve team x x x x
Youth team x x x x
Training x x x x
Team
Dressing room
chemistry x x x
Contracts x x
Staff x x x x
Transfer
market x x x x
Cooperation x x x x
Transfers
Scouting x x x x
Financial
status x x x x
Stadium x x x x
Club facilities x x x x
Merchandising x x x x
Ticketing x x x x
Sponsoring x x x x
Club
Achievements x x
My career x x
Personal life x x x x
Watch other
matches x
Career
Career options x x
FIFA Manager with the selected sport-manager competence-
models! If you think the game-play can foster a particular models’
competence dimension make a cross according to the game’s
clickable structure! If you are not sure you can re-play the game
to experience the game-play in question once more.” Raters had
access to the game while they were given the task.
Results
The matching decisions of the three raters (A, B, and C) were
verified by determining inter-rater reliability using Cohen’s
kappa (κ) (Cohen, 1960). Coding consistency for rater A and B
was κ = 0.91, between rater A and C, it was κ = 0.94, and be-
tween rater B and C, it was κ = 0.89. Kappa values of 0.4 to 0.6
are characterized as fair, 0.6 to 0.75 as good, and over 0.75 as
excellent (Bakeman & Gottman, 1997; Fleiss, 1981). Therefore,
inter-rater reliability can be considered excellent and very high
for the matching decisions.
The model by Lussier and Kimball (2009) reaches almost a
total match (Table 1). The model by Parks et al. (1988) leaves
some aspects untouched (language skills, oral and written
communication skills, and self-starters) (Table 2). Moreover,
the model by Hoff et al. (2007) shows negative matches for
writing and interviewing, as it also produces the lowest number
of matches compared to the other models (Table 3).
In overview, only a few categories of the selected models are
not covered by FIFA Manager 09.
Discussion
The negative match of the Parks et al. (1988) model can ea-
sily be explained by the fact that face-to-face conversations
with human beings are missing. The game-play of FIFA Man-
ager 09 does not simulate complex human conversational in-
teraction. Hence, language and communication skills are not
fostered because FIFA Manager 09 does not allow the player to
have complex written or oral communication. The negative
match of self-starters does not surprise much, due to the fact
that FIFA Manager 09 is a computer game and therefore unable
to set the start-up for a real-world sport-management career.
The negative matches for writing and interviewing of the
model by Hoff et al. (2007) can be explained similarly to the
Parks et al. (1988) model; equal reasons of game-play and
missing human interaction cause these negative matches.
The fact that the Parks et al. (1988) model produces the low-
est number of matches compared to the other models can be
explained by the inner complexity of the model. Numerous
sub-categories are evidence of a specialized and highly differ-
entiated model. Matching one complex model with another
complex model, as the framework of FIFA Manager 09 surely
is, naturally leads to a small intersection. Thus, the overall
matching rate can’t be as high compared to less complex models.
Moreover, quantity can’t be the only measure for the presented
matching process. Some specialized aspects of the Hoff et al.
model are important for only some specialized sport-manager
processes. For instance, managing facilities is so specialized
that is has got nothing to do with the FIFA Manger 09 catego-
ries team, transfers, and career. These specialized aspects indi-
cate a quality match; that means that there actually is a high
matching rate, although quantitative analysis displays a lower
matching one.
According the high number of matches, the intersection of
digital sport management and “real” sport management is truly
obvious and therefore strengthened by academic theory. This
means that a linkage between certain competences of “scientific
theory” and the game-play can be confirmed by rating results.
Thus, transfer of learning (Gee, 2003) may be fostered by the
digital game.
In sum, sport-management games are of use for prospective
sport managers. FIFA Manager 09 might be employed for seri-
ous learning processes and outcomes, which have a large
amount of skills and tasks in common with “real” sport-ma-
nagement and managers. Nonetheless, there is “open space”
that is not covered by the sport-management game due to a lack
of face-to-face interaction and physical experience within the
“real” world.
Sport-management games, exemplarily FIFA Manager 09,
can give an overview on the field of work in question to sport-
management students. These games, which can actually be seen
as serious games, can serve as an exploratory introduction
182

R. KRETSCHMANN
Table 2.
FIFA Manager 09 vs Parks et al. (1988).
Computer lit erac y
Flexibility an d ada pta -
bility
Diversity (people)
Language skills
Team players
Learning s k il ls and con-
tinuous reeducation
Personal c areer planning
skills
Global aware ness/ orien-
tation
Oral and written com-
munication skills
Self-starters
Self-comfort
Ethical framework
Environmen tal sc a nni ng
skills
News centre x x x x x
Calendar x x x x x x
First team x x x
Reserve team x x x x
Youth team x x x x
Training x x x
Team
Dressing room chemistry x x x x x
Contracts x x x x x x
Staff x x x x x
Transfer market x x x x x
Cooperation x x x x x x x
Transfers
Scouting x x x x
Financial status x x x x
Stadium x x x x
Club facilities x x x x
Merchandising x x x x x
Ticketing x x x x
Sponsoring x x x x x x
Club
Achievements x x x x x
My career x x x x x
Personal life x x x x x
Watch other matches x x x x x
Career
Career options x x x x x
to critical thinking and cybernetic basics of the dynamic sport-
management processes and the profession of a sport manager in
a professional sport club, namely a football club.
After re-considering the educational purpose and initial idea
of developing sport-manager competences, further thinking will
probably lead to the question “What type of manager?” And
this might lead to a possible answer when considering the
manager-types model by Lussier and Kimball (2009): 1) mar-
keting manager; 2) operations manager; 3) finance manager;
and 4) human resource manager (Figure 1).
Following this thought, game developers may in the future
focus on games which only feature a certain type of sport ma-
nager. Specialization in terms of a special training for certain
manager types might be the result of this development. On the
other hand, future sport-manager training-concepts might build
on digital sport-management games with a broad focus that
cover all manager tasks and types in general. In this case,
sport-management games, which deal with a certain manager
type only, might be used for specialized training in the training
program for the selected manager type.
However, FIFA Manager 09 by EA Sports is not the only
product in this sub-genre relating to football. Football Manager
09 by Sega is a serious competitor on the market place (Clifford,
2009; Hassoun, 2008). Football Manager 09’s game-play and

R. KRETSCHMANN
Table 3.
FIFA Manager 09 vs Hoff et al. (2007).
Organization management Information management General sport management
skills
Budgeting
Accounting
Coordinating
Managing personnel
Managing facilities
Controlling
Directing
Evaluating
Leading
Writing
Selling
Working with media
Developing
Keeping game notes
and statistics
Interviewing
Promoting
Advertising
Fund-raising
Marketing and sales
Record keeping
Correspondence
Community relations
Public speaking
News centre x x x xx
Calendar X X X x
First team X X X
Reserve team X X X
Youth team X X X
Training X X X X X
Team
Dressing room
chemistry X X X X
Contracts X X X X X
Staff X X X X x XX X
Transfer market X X X X X
Cooperation X X X X X x
Transfers
Scouting X X X xX X
Financial status X x X X X X X X
Stadium X X X X X
Club facilities X x X X X X
Merchandising X X X X X XX X
Ticketing X X X X X X X
Sponsoring X X X X X XX x X
Club
Achievements X XX x XX x X
My career X X xX Xx X
Personal life X X X X
Watch other
matches X x X
Career
Career options X X x X
design differ from FIFA Manager 09 and could possibly lead to
different results when using the same theoretical framework
presented in this paper. Even other sport-management games,
featuring different sports, could lead to different case studies
due to specific game-design and game-play.
Further research might continue with an in-depth game-play
analysis and might even change the point of view to “real”
sport-management as a starting point and basic framework,
instead of using “virtual” sport-management as the initial point
for investigation. Furthermore, empirical data in quasi-experi-
mental settings are recommended as well. These studies might
compare prospective sport-manager learning-groups using sport-
management games and “traditional” educational methods
learning-groups. In this case, curriculum development is highly
inconsistent. Therefore, curriculum development should inte-
grate digital sport-management games sensibly. The original
digital game-based learning approach by Prensky (2001, 2006)
might serve as initial point.
Switching the viewpoint from sport managers to players,
“perhaps Football Manager stimulates them to think about tac-
tics and the responsibilities of a coach—the psychological as-
pects of managing players. It gives them an early insight, a
184

R. KRETSCHMANN
Figure 1.
Types of sport managers (adjusted from Lussier & Kimball, 2009: p. 14).
different perspective on the sport” (Cox in Stuart, 2011).
Therefore the DGBL approach might be applicable to all in-
volved individuals in the action-research field football.
Nonetheless, a qualified educator is needed that is able to
guide the prospective sport manager through the digital game’s
game-play properly. Not much focus is laid on the aspect of
training the trainer so far (Peterson et al., 2008). A concept for
a curriculum relating to trainers for digital sport-manager
games that specializes on the learning-facilitator role is still in
need to be developed.
Looking closer at factual typical sport manager careers of
elite professional football clubs, it may appear as if a profes-
sional football career as a player is essential and necessary for
entering the manager job (Carter, 2006). Therefore, alumni
having degrees from colleges and universities might experience
difficulties in competing against former athletes without college
education. Regarding the increase in professionalization of the
business it becomes apparent that “competition is so fierce for
these jobs that a good education is extremely helpful” (Field,
2010: p. 27). Integrating innovative technology and teaching
into educational curriculums therefore makes perfect sense.
As there are country-specific differences in job requirements,
duties, and reality as well as in professional sport (manager)
careers (Thibault, 2009), curriculum development and educa-
tional concepts for prospective sport managers may differ, of
course. Gender issues and biases should also be considered, as
highly ranked established (sport) manager positions are hard to
access by women (Humberstone, 2009).
Conclusion
In conclusion, FIFA Manager 09, as a representative of digi-
tal sport-management games, offers a sensible introduction to
the field of work of sport management and associated work.
However, scientific evaluation of future didactical scenarios
integrating sport-management games is needed. The digital
game is only meant to be an assistant embedded in pedagogical
arrangements that can’t replace “real” experience with being a
“real” sport manager acting in the “real” world. Research in this
field is almost not existent, even though of utmost importance.
Researchers, educators, and game designers will need to coop-
erate to tackle its future challenges (Rousseau & McCarthy,
2007).
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