Marketing communication practices that foster integration in football clubs

This study investigates the marketing communication practices in football clubs in an attempt to understand the extent to which integration is implemented in them. Based on the close link between integration and marketing communications, it can be argued that this study examines the current practice in an effort to access the strategic focus of the marketing communications practices encountered. In other words, the aim of this study is not only to create an account of the marketing communications practices in football, but also to identify and access whether the current practices implemented foster strategic integration, which is a key aspect of strategic brand management

Crisis-Communications Management in Football Clubs

This article was published in the International Journal of Sport Communication [© Human Kinetics] and the definitive version is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1123/ijsc.2016-0062.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

Alternative revenue streams for centrally funded sport governing bodies

In a world of ever-increasing focus on Government spending as a result of recession-induced austerity measures, the current Government of the United Kingdom has clarified its intention to share and ultimately transfer the burden of funding to those sports that currently enjoy government support. Outside the sports that, due to their wide commercial and broadcast appeal are able to derive significant revenues, it will become necessary for national governing bodies (NGBs) to cast the net wide in search of consistent, reliable methods of generating revenues that satisfy broader stakeholder aims whilst maintaining focus on their core responsibilities of sport development, encouraging participation and driving performance. In order to unpick this process, interviews were undertaken with senior officials from non-commercialised NGBs to better grasps the current situation and what steps are being taken to secure funding with further exploration of the impact of these new streams. Using Pfeffer and Salancik’s Resource Dependence Theory and Markowitz’s Portfolio Theory, this study examines the revenue streams currently explored by the NGBs, as well as their associated benefits and pitfalls. Through this research, it was found that the applicability of each stream was largely dependent on the unique characteristics of each body. Size and demographics of membership or participants, the degree of formality of participation, local or regional importance of the sport and commercial appeal to potential sponsors and partners, all drove the particular mix of revenue streams achieved by NGBs, making generalisation or the creation of a usable, common template difficult as a result

Transforming sport consumption: Exploring motivated sport fans innovativeness in the context of AR live sport streaming

Purpose This study delves into the psychological processes underlying sport fans' post-purchase innovativeness behaviour. This exploratory research aims to establish a theoretical framework that elucidates the formation of sport fans' word-of-mouth (WOM) behaviours, particularly emphasising the structural relationship between motivated consumer innovativeness and satisfaction in using AR live-streaming services. Design/methodology/approach Utilising an online survey and convenience sampling, the study garnered a total of 243 usable responses from three online baseball fan communities in South Korea. Confirmatory factor analysis was employed to assess the psychometric properties of the constructs. Subsequently, a structural equation model was used to probe the influence of motivated consumer innovativeness on WOM, with a particular focus on the mediating role of satisfaction. Findings Three dimensions of motivated sport fans innovativeness – functional, hedonic and cognitive – showed a positive association with WOM, partly mediated by satisfaction. In contrast, socially motivated sport fans innovativeness did not directly lead to WOM but influenced it solely through satisfaction. The full mediating role of satisfaction in the relationship between socially motivated fans innovativeness and WOM was found. Originality/value This research stands out as one of the scant studies exploring motivated sport fans innovativeness in the context of AR live sport streaming. The findings not only corroborate but also augment the extant literature by empirically confirming that three dimensions of motivated fans innovativeness, coupled with satisfaction, are pivotal antecedents to WOM intention

An anatomy of Turkish football match-fixing

While discussion on corruption in sport is intensifying and football match-fixing in particular is attracting increasing attention, new fixing scandals emerge offering new accounts of actors and corrupt practices within the football industry and the level of the external threat to the sport. The scandal exposure of fixed matches in Turkey in 2011 sheds light on the fixing of 17 matches played in the 2010/11 football season and allowed for insights to the actors, structure and processes behind the fix. Following four criminal and seven disciplinary proceedings, the case is still pending appeal for its final decision, involving a total of 93 suspects and having already resulted in the exclusion of two teams from European competitions. The evidence collected by the authorities points towards a hierarchical criminal organisation led by the President of a football club that arranged and coordinated the fixing in order for his team to win the national Championship. The aim of this article is to provide an account of the organisation and coordination of match-fixing in Turkey, with its actors, specifics and criminal characteristics, while offering an examination of match-fixing for sporting success, the least documented type of match-fixing

The effect of government-public relationships on residents’ support in mega sport events: A moderating effect of government crisis response

The study seeks to investigate the role of host governments’ policy public relations and crisis response strategies in shaping residents’ support for mega sport events. Specifically, the research focuses on the moderation effects of crisis response strategies on the relationships between the government-public relationships (GPR) dimensions (i.e., control mutuality, trust, and satisfaction) and residents’ support. The research targeted residents of Tokyo, a host city for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Online surveys were disseminated via an international survey company between 23rd to 29th October 2020, obtaining 500 complete responses. Then, a two-step approach was utilised to ensure the tenability of the hypothesised model: CFA for testing the measurement model and SEM for testing the hypothetical relationships. There was a positive association between perceived control mutuality and satisfaction with residents’ support for the mega sport event. The study reaffirmed the importance of control mutuality and satisfaction as GPR indicators for residents’ support, introducing this concept into the mega sport event context. In addition, the relationship between control mutuality and residents’ support was moderated by their perception of the appropriateness of crisis response. Based on the results, theoretical and practical implications were presented

Football Clubs and Financial Crimes in Greece

Purpose - The purpose of the current article is to provide an account of the financial crimes that are commit-ted within the football clubs in Greece. Design/methodology/approach - First, ethnographic research with two football clubs in Greece was con-ducted. Additional information on the issues at stake was obtained through interviews with informed actors from the realm of Greek football. Moreover, the telephone conversations that were available as the result of wiretapping by the Greek National Intelligence Agency, in relation to the latest football match-fixing scandal (2011) were used. Finally, published media sources were used. These provided information not only on the process behind financial crimes within football clubs but also on the key actors involved. Findings - A number of financial (and finance-related) crimes committed within football clubs were identified in the study. These include: ticket "tricks", fake tax certificates, crimes related to the players' salary pay-ments, owing money, money laundering and match-fixing. Issues around financial crimes within football clubs must be located within the overall football-related context in the country, which is, of course, an exten-sion of the general financial, entrepreneurial and political landscape in the country. Originality/value - This is the first article on football clubs and financial crimes in Greece. Although this is a case study from Greece, it constitutes a potential template for research on an international level. By using the case of football and football clubs in Greece, this article adds to understandings of the complexity of the broader motivational context of financial crime

An anatomy of Turkish football match-fixing

While discussion on corruption in sport is intensifying and football match-fixing in particular is attracting increasing attention, new fixing scandals emerge offering new accounts of actors and corrupt practices within the football industry and the level of the external threat to the sport. The scandal exposure of fixed matches in Turkey in 2011 sheds light on the fixing of 17 matches played in the 2010/11 football season and allowed for insights to the actors, structure and processes behind the fix. Following four criminal and seven disciplinary proceedings, the case is still pending appeal for its final decision, involving a total of 93 suspects and having already resulted in the exclusion of two teams from European competitions. The evidence collected by the authorities points towards a hierarchical criminal organisation led by the President of a football club that arranged and coordinated the fixing in order for his team to win the national Championship. The aim of this article is to provide an account of the organisation and coordination of match-fixing in Turkey, with its actors, specifics and criminal characteristics, while offering an examination of match-fixing for sporting success, the least documented type of match-fixing

‘The only game in town?’: football match-fixing in Greece

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12117-014-9239-3Football match-fixing in Greece has a relatively long history, however, from the late 1990s it has been considered as a serious problem for the sport in the country. Despite the history of the phenomenon in the country, Greece has only relatively recently been identified as one of the hotspots for football match-fixing on an international level. Following the recent scandal exposure of fixed matches in Greece in 2011, also known as Koriopolis (a pun name on the Italian scandal Calciopolis and the Greek word ‘korios’ or phone-tap), detailed information about numerous matches played in the 2008/09, 2009/10 and 2010/11 seasons that attracted UEFA’s attention were brought into the public eye. Soon after, legal action was taken against individuals involved in the process, with a number of club officials facing lifelong bans from any footballrelated activity, and football clubs either relegated or excluded from European competitions and the Super League itself for their involvement in the scandal. In May 2013, the number of people facing charges exceeded 200, with some of them having already been imprisoned for their involvement in the scandal. Following the aforementioned scandal exposure, a vast amount of information regarding football match-fixing was made available to the public. The aim of the current article is to provide an account of the social organisation of football match-fixing in Greece. Our account is based on three main sources of data: the telephone conversations that were the result of wiretapping by the National Intelligence Agency in relation to the latest football match-fixing scandal (of 2011), published media sources, and interviews with informed actors from the realm of Greek football