Hospitality Label – EHG & LFP Media for French Football

LFP Media has entrusted the École Hôtelière de Genève with the creation of a new national hospitality standard for clubs competing in Ligue 1 McDonald’s and Ligue 2 BKT. 
This ambitious initiative places Swiss hospitality excellence at the heart of the spectator experience in French professional football. 

To design this new benchmark, LFP Media selected a partner internationally recognised for its expertise in hospitality management and service excellence: the École Hôtelière de Genève (EHG).

In 2025, EHG celebrates 111 years of history, and will mark 30 years as a Swiss Higher Education Institution (ES) in 2026. This longevity reflects a strong tradition combining Swiss precision, academic rigour and an international outlook.

For more than a century, EHG has trained professionals capable of operating in complex, high-expectation environments focused on customer experience and leadership.

The first phase of the Hospitality Label was conducted as part of the Service Excellence & Experience Design module within EHG’s Postgraduate Diploma programmes. Students carried out an exploratory study to identify the key dimensions of the spectator experience in large-scale public venues. This work formed the conceptual foundation of the current phase.

The development of the Label is now continuing through a Final Diploma Project (TDD) involving a dedicated group of EHG students. Supervised by ES lecturers and an expert Postgraduate professor, they visit multiple French stadiums, attend official matches, observe real-time operational flows and access VIP hospitality areas.
They also conduct targeted interviews with high-profile clients, whose insights refine and enrich the analysis.

Throughout the project, teams are working on the creation of a hospitality reference framework intended to become a national standard. The specific criteria and components of the Hospitality Label will remain confidential until their official delivery to LFP Media, scheduled for April 2026. This approach ensures methodological rigour, grounded observation and institutional responsibility. 

Alongside this major collaboration, EHG observes a clear market evolution: organisations well beyond the hospitality sector increasingly turn to the school to strengthen their expertise in service excellence, customer experience and customer journey design.

In an economy where differentiation relies as much on emotion as on product, organisations seek professionals capable of embodying a strong human presence, managing complex projects and inspiring teams.

In a labour market reshaped by artificial intelligence, automation and accelerated digitalisation, soft skills have become a defining feature of modern leadership. Discernment, empathy, adaptability and strategic vision are now essential, human capabilities that cannot be automated and represent high added value.

For over 111 years, and nearly 30 years as a Higher Education Institution, École Hôtelière de Genève has distinguished itself by developing well-rounded leaders, combining operational excellence with strong interpersonal intelligence.

Through its role in creating the Hospitality Label, École Hôtelière de Genève demonstrates that hospitality can serve as a transformational lever for an entire industry. By collaborating with the French Professional Football League, EHG contributes to a structuring initiative that places quality, consistency and human experience at the core of major sporting events.

A project that fully embodies the concept of legacy: creating a durable, meaningful and structuring impact for the future of professional football.