Just Win
The Dutch Royal Football Association is having a hard time.
The performances of Dutch teams in Europe are terrible and the national team
isn’t doing any better. Next to that the external communication with their
stakeholders and the media about the current situation shows some major flaws.
For example there was the issue on the recent declining performances of the
Dutch national team and missing the 2016 Euro cup. One member of the board of
directors stated that the solution to the declining performances was easy: ‘‘we just have to win every game from now on’’
This comment was the start of some serious critique from the
media and stakeholders via social media.
We’re Sorry?
However the Association never made any comments on the
statements of member of the board of directors. According to Coombs’
Situational Crisis Response Theory (2007) this is a huge mistake. In situations
of a crisis, and the amateur statements of a member of the board of directors
certainly qualify as a crisis, an organization should take responsibility for
their actions in order to gain control over the situation. Because of the fact
that the stakeholders think the association is responsible for the current
state of performance in football as well as the recent comments made by the
board of directors, the association should aim at rebuilding trust by
apologizing. Unfortunately the Dutch Association led this opportunity slip.
Influencers
Without it being known by all stakeholders though, the
association was taking internal responsibility for the crisis within Dutch
football performances. They found out that the decline in performances was due
to the different way in which young kids play football in comparison to earlier
years. So the association stated that they are going to implement a new way of
education young football players. However they made a flaw in the distribution
of the information once again. Instead of using the power of social media and
key influencers on that platform, they opted for a simple press release. Recent
literature on the use of social media (Valentini, 2015., Moreno et al.,2015)
state that social media offers benefits as well as some flaws for public
relations. Walden et al. (2015) state that influential bloggers have the
‘power’ to shape the public opinion. The association should have used these
people, which certainly exist, to gain support for there cause.
Framing the plans
By just releasing a press release the association gave the
opportunity to the already critical media to influence the public opinion on
the new plans. The Dutch Media, and especially the Telegraaf framed the news in
such a way that only the negative voices about the new plans were heard. Why
did they do that? Framing issues is somewhat cultural determined (Van Gorp,
2007). The media framed in such a way that it was appealing to the already
critical stakeholders of the association. And of course negative consequences
of a release are more newsworthy (Schafraad et al.,2015). Is this fair? Probably
not, but the association should have played the PR game more professional.
About
Diederik studies persuasive communication at the Uva. Next to being a student he also coaches the under-19 team of a Rotterdam based football club.
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