About - Professor David Hassan

Meet David

David Hassan is a distinguished Professor of Sport Policy and Management and has worked with some of the leading international sporting federations including the FIA, world motorsport’s global authority and UEFA, European football’s governing body. He has published 15 books and 175 other scientific outputs, having worked collaboratively with academic researchers from around the globe.

Professor Hassan has extensive non-executive and board experience as either a Trustee, Director, Board Member or Advisor on a wide range of external bodies and organisations including his most recent UK appointment to the UNBOXED Evaluation Expert Advisory Group (EAG), a series of 10 art, science and technology projects across the British Isles.
David has held senior Professorial appointments at the leading global institutions in his field – Loughborough University, UK, University of Technology, Sydney and Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia and The University of Newcastle Business School, New South Wales.

As well as a widely cited academic and writer, Professor Hassan is a regular commentator for the international media concerning global sport and was an expert contributor to the PPI Gold Award-winning documentary broadcast by the BBC entitled ‘Does the Cap Fit?’ and, more recently, its award-winning series ‘The Long and Short of It’ in February 2024.

Advocate for Change

Professor Hassan has a reputation as an advocate for change and has provided strategic direction and leadership as part of a significant portfolio of industrial and commercial experience.

Nationally, he has been appointed to numerous leadership roles by the GAA, including to its strategic committee, ‘Towards 150’ in 2015, as a non-executive board member on the Ulster Council Management Committee from 2017 to 2019, as Chair of the GAA’s Standing Committee of the Playing Rules (from 2018 to 2024), as Chair of the Ulster’s Council’s Strategic Plan (2019 – 2021), as a member of its National Strategic Planning Oversight Committee (2021 – 2022) and, most recently, as Chair of the GAA’s new Amateur Status Committee, a brief he assumed in February 2024. He has also worked collaboratively with the Irish Football Association and Special Olympics International, amongst other governing authorities.

He has been honoured by the President of Ireland for the impact of his academic research, whilst his work examining the needs of young people with a range of complex disabilities in the Middle East has been recognised by the UAE Minister for Culture, Youth, and Social Development.