Profile
Dr Joel Rookwood is a lecturer in Sport Management and course director for the undergraduate Sport and Exercise Management degree at University College Dublin in Ireland. He has also been a visiting fellow in Sport Management and Marketing at the University of Vic – Central Catalunya in Spain since 2010, and a consultant for the World Academy of Sport and Federation University in Australia since 2020. Joel previously held lecturing positions in British universities in Preston, Southampton, Liverpool and Leeds and has given guest lectures in 20 countries.
Joel undertook a BSc in Science and Football and an MRes in Sport and Exercise Science at Liverpool John Moores University, followed by an MSc in Sport Management at the University of Leicester. His PhD awarded by the University of Liverpool’s Management School examined fan disorder and crowd management. He then completed a PGCLTHE postgraduate teaching qualification in 2008.
Dr Rookwood has had numerous applied and consultancy roles. After three contracts employed as a soccer coach in North America, Joel worked in sports performance as an analyst and coach for several professional football clubs and national teams in the UK.
Joel has since worked on numerous consultancy projects for sports governing bodies, universities, non-governmental organisations and private sports companies. He has led and conducted funded, published research on 30 sport-for-development projects across six continents. Joel has also worked at 21 sports mega-events in various capacities, including at the last six FIFA men’s World Cups. He was a global columnist on a Japanese football website for a decade and has written for various media publications. He has produced numerous films amassing a combined 250,000 online views.
Joel’s research interests include sports mega-events, international development, the football industry and sports governance and he is a founding member and current co-director of The Football Collective. He has written / edited four books and more than 50 peer-reviewed articles / chapters. He has overseen over 100 dissertations and currently supervises five PhD students. Joel has an extensive array of global experiences and has travelled to 171 countries.
