Project leader: International Sport and Culture Association (ISCA)

Project partner: Hungarian University of Sports Science (HUSS)

Start Date: January 01, 2022-

End Date: November 30, 2022

Description of project:

Soft Skills for Soft Diplomacy pilot project aimed at exploring specific methods to enable professional athletes to develop skills that may help them act in various diplomatic roles and relations in their second career phase. The majority of professional athletes and graduating students of sport universities experience the massive lack of skills and understanding of diplomacy, international relations, intercultural challenges, protocol and language skills required when working for a sport club, federation or institution. Raising awareness of one’s own skills, objectives and opportunities has been achieved through our project at several levels. We explore the specific needs this emerging pool of sport professionals may need and elaborated some platforms and recommendations to eliminate this knowledge gap are the specific goals our project team wishes to tackle.

The pool of participants included former and current students of the Hungarian University of Sports Sciences (HUSS) Sport Diplomacy Program, former and active professional athletes, decision makers in sport related positions and HUSS students. Furthermore, the 6th of May Sport Diplomacy Forum has integrated a table tennis tournament that celebrated the 50th Anniversary of Ping Pong Diplomacy, and an online section on skills required for a successful sport diplomat career where acting diplomats and institutional partner representatives from various countries joined the discussion.

It is worth underlining the relevance of this project at various levels:

• This initiative has been a ground breaker in embracing an international (ISCA) effort to study the ways we can foster sport diplomacy along with 5 grassroots organizations.
• On a national scale, it has been experimental in combining various views and approaches from diplomacy, HE, sport management and sport profession on the skills of a sport diplomat.
• On an institutional level, HUSS has boosted the efforts and its network in the study of sport diplomacy, entered a European project successfully, and fostered the development of an English language sport diplomacy program with our international partners.
• On a team and individual level: we have joined efforts of our SD alumni, current students and faculty and created two events (1 on campus and 1 abroad), an interview and a questionnaire series and a thesis.

Partners:

1. International Sport and Culture Association (ISCA)
2. Hungarian University of Sports Sciences (HUSS)
3. Unione Italiana Sport Per tutti (UISP) APS Roma
4. National Danish Performance Team – Danish Gymnastic Association (DGI)
5. FC Internationale Berlin 1980 e.V
6. ITTF Foundation

Webpage >>>