Laura Macchiotti receives  FIFA/CIES award from Joseph Blatter and Bertrand Reeb

During a meeting held at FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich on 17 January, an international jury consisting of 6 members - Christoph Schmidt (FIFA), Harold Mayne-Nicholls (Chile), Jinxian Dong (China), Dino Ruta (Italia), Pierre Lanfranchi (CIES) and Vincent Schatzmann (CIES) - awarded the first FIFA/CIES International University Network Prize to Laura Macchiotti , María Teresita Axmann, and Evangelina Tosello, a group of students of the Universidad Católica Argentina for their project entitled: “A new opportunity: building resilience through sport”.

The jury members emphasized that their decision was motivated by the quality of the project’s contents, its innovative spirit, its potential and the relevant use of the existing literature.

The Prize of the Network was created to distinguish the best group project carried out in the framework of the FIFA/CIES Program in Sport Management.

On  March 30th the three alumni of the FIFA/CIES Program at UCA, Argentina, presented their group project “A new opportunity: building resilience through sport” to the FIFA Master students at the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland.

On April 1st, Laura  visited  FIFA, Headquarters and received  FIFA/CIES award from Joseph S. Blatter, FIFA President and Bertrand Reeb, CIES President.


CIES (International Centre for Sports Studies), located in Neuchatel, is a private Swiss foundation, affiliated with the University of Neuchatel and created in 1995 by FIFA (under the impetus of its current president, Mr. Joseph S. Blatter), the University of Neuchatel, and the City and Canton of Neuchatel.

CIES specialises in three specific domains: law, sociology and economy of sport, with a view to bring together the sporting and the academic worlds. Privileging a pluri-disciplinary approach, CIES provides a wide range of research, education and consultancy services.