Isn’t it about time sports organisations and teams got a better grip on their communications? Over the past 48 hours we have seen the England football team implode publically as former captain John Terry addressed the world’s media at the team’s daily press conference. While some have applauded his honesty others have questioned the loyalty to his manager, Fabio Capello, and his successor as England captain, Steven Gerrard.
Subsequently Terry has apologised for publically undermining his teammates but this has been an unwelcome extra episode in the long-running soap opera that is team England.
Come On England
The FA have received plaudits in some quarters for the way they have handled the media during this World Cup; most notably as they have set up a successful online TV channel bringing exclusive content from within the camp. This undoubtedly will help to fill the coffers in Soho Square and may mean additional investment in the grassroots of the national game. However, the test for any media operation is during the tough times and how they react when under attack. On this measure, once again, the FA has failed.
Would a crisis hit organisation put up a spokesperson, in the style of John Terry on Sunday evening, who didn’t know the lines to take or worse had no clue what that spokesman was about to say? Of course not. When in a crisis situation – which England have been since last Friday’s disappointing draw with Algeria – an organisation must ensure continuity in messaging to manage its reputation and regain control of the media narrative: taking the pressure off those in key positions. What happened on Sunday fed the media storm, kicking on the story for another few days, ultimately increasing the pressure on the team ahead of a must win game.
The FA’s investment in new media has allowed it to control a lot of the content fans back in England have seen which makes the handling of events over the past few days even more baffling. The FA hierarchy seem to want to distance themselves from Sunday’s press conference and have backed the manager Fabio Capello against his former captain. This is understandable but fails to explain why FA staff were seen to exit the press conference with Terry seemingly happy with the way things had been handled.
Sadly it appears that the FA had fallen into the trap of placating their friends in the media by giving journalists the story they wanted rather than using the press conference to release the pressure from the team by staying on message. Sport is a multi million pound business so shouldn’t sports teams and organisations such as the FA ensure that they run professional media operations to match?
