Communication & Competition - football's War & Peace | #ECACMP | Warsaw

The sixth and last session of the ECA CMP, related to Communication and Club Environment, made an epic closure of the programme at the end of May in the home of the 2016/17 Polish Champion Legia Warszawa.

One of the sections of the ECA Club Management Guide deals with the challenges as well as the opportunities offered by the internal and the external environment. In times of digitalisation, and even increased mediatisation, one of the most complicated items within club football is to manage the communication flow. On one side, you have a horizontal level: clubs vs externals, such as media, public interest and stakeholders. On the other side a vertical level: internal vs club, with the flow of information that you manage internally within the club administration. The paradox is that the top executives need to find a multilevel balance between the protection and limit of information going out, and on the opposite, leak information as public attention increases the popularity of a football club.

Don’t limit communication down to one department, but be aware of the message

The rapid development of modern communication technologies in the recent decades means that the traditional scenario of a limited pool of professional media resources operating in a defined field is no longer a reality. Today, especially with the emerging social media landscape, anyone can become not only a source of media information but also its publisher and distributor, which means that clubs have to implement new strategies and policies to ensure they still manage and control the information flow.

The session in Warsaw, with presentations from Manchester United FC and Facebook amongst others, clearly showed that clubs have at their disposal an immense pool of information and knowledge. This is an extremely valuable resource that they should actively exploit and manage in a proactive way. This does not mean limiting or curtailing communication: on the contrary, the key is to find the right things to talk about for the right individuals within the club, in order to ensure a consistent and logical flow of information from the club into the public domain. Do not limit communication down to one department, if you are to succeed let the business unlock all of its capabilities to paraphrase Jerry Newman from Facebook.

Increasing club commercialisation has placed significant pressure on this relationship, with clubs seeking to retain legitimate and authentic lines of communication to their communities. As a main line throughout the CMP programme, the key lesson remains that clubs must keep authenticity as a core of their daily business. We shall not forget though that crisis management communication will inevitably arise because it is impossible to hide things, but you can still (and have to!) protect them. In the end decisions need to be made in a rational and efficient manner, thinking of possible effects and in consultation rather than in an autocratic manner in order to ensure general acceptance.

Competitive Balance, the wrong war but the correct battle?

Much has been said during the session on football competition and its competitiveness, but I would here like to give an account of the vibrant exchange we had together with Simon Kuper that introduced the “paradox of power” developed by Jack Hirshleifer. Poorer or smaller entities often end up improving their position and performance when in a battle with richer or larger ones. The smaller contenders have a higher motivation to fight harder against the stronger opponent, which is the paradox of power. This David against Goliath analysis was originally applied within a geopolitical framework, but can also be applied in football. The underdogs very often gain the support from fans that just occasionally watch the game and do not follow the teams playing. The smaller club will fight harder for the win, bearing in mind that big clubs are more concentrated on the bigger battles and therefore might dedicate less attention for such smaller battles. So maybe, just maybe, the real essense of football is to be “unequal”, but offer a unique chance that in every 90 minutes of football anything could happen, whether it is through luck, brilliant play, outsmarting the opponent, parking the bus or simply scoring one more than the rival?

Other #ECACMP articles

• Leadership & Strategy | Observations
• Sports Activities | Observations
• Business Activities | Observations
• CSR: Who cares? | Observations
• MatchOps & Integrity | Observations
• Communication & Competition | Observations

Other articles:

• What is the future of eSports?
• There is no single recipe to the structure a football club
• Eastern European Club Football: challenges and opportunities
• Business partners off the field, competitors on the field, Learnings from the US
• 关于如何经营足球俱乐部的主题演讲
• Образование и подготовка кадров - не пустые слова
• Polski futbol: gra zaległości
• ملاحظاتي الرئيسية عن كيفية إدارة نادي كرة قدم
• Club Museums: Understanding the History and creating the Legacy