Crisis-Communications Management in Football Clubs

Abstract

An escalating number of crises appear in the sport industry in general and the football industry in particular that make the area of crisis communication an increasingly important matter in both the everyday running and the long-term viability of football. However, the sensitivity of the topic makes an extensive analysis on crisis communications current practice a particularly challenging task. This study examines how crisis communications is managed, by investigating the current practices and techniques employed in English Premier League clubs, as they were presented by communications professionals employed in the clubs. The analysis of the clubs' practices underlines the lack of pro-activity and presents the most popular strategies of crisis communications management; the "wait for the dust to settle" and the "react promptly before the noise grows". In addition, an under-documented technique is examined: the use of the informal personal relationships between the employees of the clubs and the members of the media. This study also introduces the Crisis Communications Management in Football model, which illustrates the practices identified through this study and can potentially act as a guide for crisis communications analysis in a number of other industries.

Professional football clubs and empirical evidence from the COVID-19 crisis: Time for sport entrepreneurship?

“…Our findings further emphasize that football organizations are frequently affected by unexpected adverse shocks ( Szymanski & Weimar, 2019 ) which let us conclude that they are either unaware of the particular vulnerability of the industry or ignore it on purpose to remain competitive and thus simply hope for the best. Our results support the findings of Manoli (2016) that PFCs need a considerable amount of permanent monitoring of both internal and external developments as well as crisis preparation. However, our interview findings revealed that none of the participating clubs has adequate crisis management structures.…”

“…The organizational goals of maximizing sporting performance lead to a very tight budget with only small profits ( Garcia-del-Barrio & Szymanski, 2009 ) which was confirmed by the CEOs of the clubs in the interviews. The interviewees also acknowledged that some of the clubs would not survive the corona crisis for long, as the pandemic had left them with no income, confirming the vulnerability of professional football in crises ( Manoli, 2016 ). Our findings further emphasize that football organizations are frequently affected by unexpected adverse shocks ( Szymanski & Weimar, 2019 ) which let us conclude that they are either unaware of the particular vulnerability of the industry or ignore it on purpose to remain competitive and thus simply hope for the best.…”

“…In sum, it can therefore be said that PFCs are highly susceptible to crises because of their financial management, the uncertainty of their environment, and their size. Hence, there is a considerable need for permanent monitoring of both internal and external developments as well as crisis preparation of any football organization ( Manoli, 2016 ).…”

“…PFCs are rather match win than profit maximizers, and they generally calculate only low profits ( Garcia-del-Barrio & Szymanski, 2009 ). In addition, the football sector is highly susceptible to crises, which then promptly threaten their existence due to the club's limited liquidity ( Manoli, 2016 ; Szymanski & Weimar, 2019 ). However, according to Devece et.…”

Managing organizational reputation in response to a public shaming campaign

“…Traditional organizational reputation management tools, such as pre-crisis planning and post-crisis control strategies can be deployed, as these incidents automatically generate national and international media attention (Coombs, 2007). However, at present, the unpredictability of public, online shaming and the uncertainty over whether it is effective in impacting organizational or individual reputations mean that it may not be considered relevant in pre-crisis scenarios, given the sheer variety of issues that could begin a campaign (Kitchin & Purcell, 2017;Manoli, 2016). As such, we now turn our attention to the need for sport organizations to consider Online Reputation Management.…”