Euro Crisis Part 1
17 May 2012 - Public Relations
With just over a month to go until Euro 2012 kicks off, you can’t help but wonder whether the FA has scored a spectacular public relations own goal in appointing Roy Hodgson as England manager.
With many England fans eagerly anticipating the forthcoming tournament, the calls from the general public to make Harry Redknapp the England boss and to lead the charge into the Euro’s are still ringing in many ears. The FA must have its own reasons for appointing Hodgson but the backlash should England crash out of the tournament early might be painful to watch.
Essentially, England either has to win the whole thing or at the very least reach the quarter finals and do us proud, for it to be seen as anything but a failure. Typically, fans and the nation will initially blame the players, then the manager and then in turn, and ultimately, the FA for appointing the manager in the first place.
From a public relations perspective, had the FA chosen Redknapp they couldn’t lose. If England went on to do well or even win the tournament, the FA would have been seen to have made the right appointment and they, and Redknapp, would be heroes. If the squad didn’t do so well with Redknapp in charge, they could have shrugged their collective shoulders and said: “well, you wanted him” and the media would have very little to go on given that most of them backed him or at least fuelled the speculation that Redknapp would take charge.
Like the rest of the country, we’ll be cheering the team on in June, let’s hope that they do well and the FA don’t spend the rest of July with tin hats on, in the trenches, under a media barrage of “told you so”.
Categories
