A new approach to understanding crisis communication in sport: a news media analysis of the European super league crisis

Research Question: This article focuses on the significance of stakeholder communication when managing sport crises, moving beyond overly prescriptive and organisation-centric crisis communication frameworks. It asks the following broad research question: How were stakeholders framed according to their connection to and interactions around the European Super League crisis? It explores key stakeholder relationships, communication strategies and sport-specific influences that need integrating into sport crisis communication research. Research Methods: Using the European Super League crisis as a case study, we conduct a content analysis of 169 news reports in Britain, Spain, and Italy, published at the height of the crisis, to understand stakeholder interactions and media framing of a systemic crisis. Results and Findings: Findings showed complex representations of the crisis, with several key stakeholders portrayed as both protagonists and victims. We highlight sporting culture, in different countries, as an overarching influence and, in particular, point to the relationship between fans and owners, noting how foreign ownership has sometimes been criticised for a failure to acknowledge established sporting values. Our analysis also showed ‘strategic silence’ employed by owners in using players and coaches as a first line of defence in the face of media scrutiny–a strategy not found in established frameworks. Implications: Findings confirm the need for a holistic and tailored approach for the analysis of and practice of crisis communication in sport. Thus, this paper introduces a novel framework, named Crisis Communication for Professional Sport (CCPS), which builds on rhetorical arena theory and emphasises three key features; the complexity of relationships between stakeholders involved in a sports crisis, the need for case-specific analyses that pay specific attention to national and sporting cultures, and an acknowledgement of the sports industry’s unique dynamics.