Jenny Morris: ‘I Want To Demistify The Sport Industry’

Jenny Morris is the Director of City Football Leadership Institute (CFLI), an educational enterprise created as a collaboration between City Football Group (CFG) and BrandEd that gives students exposure to the business of football and sport through a range of immersive summer programmes and hybrid professional courses.

A veteran of the industry with a resume that includes stints with England Rugby, The FA, the Rugby Football League and, most recently, as the Director of Delivery for British Universities and College Sport, Morris now heads up an organisation that serves as a place where individuals can get their first taste of the business of sport. 

“The sport industry has grown exponentially over the last 10, 15 years, and I love the fact that it’s now recognised as an industry in its own right, but it’s still mystifying to a lot of people,” says Morris, “I see our role as being to demystify the industry.”

Indeed, despite how her own career in sport has panned out, Jenny recalls how her entry into the industry wasn’t exactly clear cut.  

“Rewind 20 years ago, I would always tell people, ‘I want to work in sports’, and the assumption was that I wanted to be a PE teacher, or a physiotherapist, or a coach. That’s not what I meant but I really didn’t have a clue about what was available, so it kind of feels like I’ve gone a little bit full circle.

“That’s why I’m so passionate about what I’m doing now, because I had to find my own way,” she explains. “I believe I’ve worked very hard, but I also feel very lucky for the opportunities I’ve had.

I want to reduce the need for luck for the next generation of people in the industry and to give them the better opportunities, that’s what I’m really kind of concerned with.”

To that end, Morris explains how she sees CFLI’s role as “connecting the dots” for pre-university students and professionals who have recently entered the job market, setting them up for a career in the industry that she loves. 

“Our programmes and our courses have been developed to enable students to explore what they’re interested in and what works for them. So, whether they’re creative minded, or it’s data analysis, or it’s writing, or business strategy, we can support them to map out the types of opportunities they’ll be interested in, and then proactively support them on that journey. It’s not just about giving them a one size fits all education. It is very much about understanding their needs, their interests, and matching that with what’s available in the industry.”

And given the breadth of roles within the industry, Morris explains how it was CFG’s ownership model and wide-ranging scope of work that ultimately made the ownership group for the perfect partner for BrandEd.

From transforming the east of Manchester with the ongoing expansion of the Etihad Campus to the creation of an in-house production house that sits within the current Premier League champions and the work it does through City in the Community, the touchpoints for students enrolled on CFLI courses are endless.

“To be able to involve the people who are actually delivering these projects and put them in a classroom with the next generation of leaders who want to learn what that’s like and understand the kind of job prospects for then, it just makes total sense,” says Morris.

With BrandEd already operating three educational institutes – The School of The New York Times, Condé Nast College of Fashion & Design, Sotheby’s Institute of Art – Morris, explains how, although the company’s latest iteration has been designed “from scratch” in collaboration with CFG, it still follows the same BrandEd principles. Namely, “work-based learning that really gives students, not just that academic education, but real-life, tangible, work-based education that’s going to give them that shortcut straight into those industries.

“You don’t go to Sotheby’s Institute of Art to learn how to be an artist, and how to paint, or to sculpt,” she continues. “You go there to understand how art is valued and sold, and what that looks like from an auction house or an art gallery perspective. What the business of the entire industry is. Similarly, with CFLI, this isn’t about coaching, or volunteering, or sports science, it’s about how brands are developed, how fans are engaged, or how marketing and business strategies are executed.”

With a range of one-day, in-person Masterclasses on a variety of subjects, longer hybrid courses specifically on the business of football and a flagship Next Gen programme for teens that takes place in both Manchester and now New York, Morris describes how everything within the CFLI wheelhouse is designed to be as immersive as possible.

“From our side, one of our core values is that we want to challenge  perceptions and develop fresh perspectives. We haven’t come into this space to replicate. We’re not the first to offer industry-based education but we’re trying to do is something that’s unique and really immersive,” she explains. “We just don’t want to teach people about how an organisation runs or governance or administration. We’re looking at what the challenges are that are coming on the horizon and how can we equip people to tackle them, because they’re going to be the next generation leaders.”

And, despite the range of courses on offer, many of which are aimed at the large number of individuals looking to transition into sport from other industries, Morris singles out the one or two-week long residential course for teens as the one that sits closest to her heart.

“The students effectively get to experience the industry, and hopefully that gives them food for thought in terms of their future education and work choices. They’ll do everything from kit design, to data analysis, to talent ID and talent acquisition and development. They’ll understand how fans are engaged, how environmental sustainability is being taken into account in new facility builds, they’ll also do sessions on eSports, gaming, entrepreneurship. And then also leadership and their own kind of careers mapping and skill set mapping.”

Geared towards 14 to 17-year-olds and with a 50-50 split between UK and international students, Morris also points out how the Next Gen programmes serve as mini university experiences, particularly those that are thinking of coming to the UK to study and acclimatise to the cold weather.

“I mean, you’re not going to get anywhere rainier that Manchester,” she jokes.

“Having the ability to welcome 200 students onto a programme, some from just down the road, and give them the opportunity to interact with students from countries that they’ve never been to before. Learning about different cultures, there’s a whole experience level that goes way beyond the curriculum. It’s really exciting when they’re all connecting with each other on social media and planning follow up trips afterwards – it’s a meaningful additional element to the programme.”

As for students once they’ve been through a CFLI programme, Morris is quick to stress that the business makes a concerted effort to remain in contact and, where possible offer guidance and advice in order to help them make the transition from education into the workforce.

“We want to stay in touch with students once they’ve been through our programmes and courses. We don’t just want to educate them and then send the students off into the wilds of industry alone.

“In particular, with our teen students we try and be extra supportive,” she continues. “We’ve got a Career Development Manager whose role is to support individual students with preparing for university and job applications. CFG have a great graduate scheme already, but through them and their network of partners we actually want to start directing some of our Next Gen students and the younger professional audience into work placements or job opportunities. So, we’re very hopeful that we’ll have some scholarships and internships later this year to offer to our alumni.”

“That’s another principle of BrandEd,” she explains. “If you go into Sotheby’s Institute of Art and look at the alumni wall, there’s so many students that either have come back to work in the Institute, or now at Sotheby’s or other places in the industry.”

Despite having taken onboard the BrandEd principles and learnings from long-standing institutes within the BrandEd portfolio, Morris is quick to make clear that, after just 18 months of operation, CFLI is at the very start of its journey. New courses and programmes will come online in the future, including a suite of online programmes, meanwhile the course material is being continually developed to reflect the changing sport industry landscape.

“The door is always open,” says Morris.