How Southgate’s England Built Great PR
England may have missed out on becoming European football champions, but the team and their manager Gareth Southgate were always going to emerge as heroes.
It was not just that the team had gained great plaudits for
their feat in reaching a major tournament final for only the second time - and
the first since 1966 - but there was also a genuine affection for a team that
gained an image of being a side free of egos and arrogance, a charge so often
laid at squads in the past when club rivalries and ubiquitous
WAGs
seemed to dominate the headlines.
Part of this may have come from a greater willingness to be
open with the media, with players providing a “human” insight into their lives.
This sort of move can take courage in any organisation that
has had a bad press in the past, as the England team and FA undoubtedly have down
the years; those with long memories will remember some of the scathing tabloid
headlines after defeats, or former England boss Graham Taylor being mocked
up as a turnip by the Sun. Yet this team has sought to build bridges, not
walls.
Nonetheless, the openness appears to have worked, which
suggests that when it comes to cultivating better media relations in London, the Football
Association has finally got it right.
They have been helped no end by the buy-in from the players,
who have shown themselves to be far removed from the stereotypical image of flash,
overpaid egotists with little or no connection with the real world.
Chief among them has been Manchester United player Marcus
Rashford
, whose campaigning on the issue of free school meals and childhood
literacy harked back to his own humble beginnings in Manchester.
Rashford has also been at the heart of attempts by the
England team to draw attention to issues of racism in the sport. During the
qualifiers, England’s black players were abused in Bulgaria and have been firm
in taking the knee before matches, a move that has not pleased everyone but has
demonstrated a consistent willingness to seek to raise awareness of a
persistent problem.
The backlash to that has come in the form of racial abuse on
social media, something Rashford has faced regularly from critics and suffered
again after he missed one of the penalties in the shoot-out against Italy,
along with fellow black players Bukayo Sako and Jadon Sancho.
However, the positive PR built up by these players,
especially Rashford, has led to a massive outpouring of support, not least at
the site
of a mural of the player in Manchester
that had been defaced after the
final.
The fact is there is a deep sense of unity
around the team that
comes
from having crossed boundaries and challenged norms, both off the field and on
it.
Of course, the old nemesis of the penalty shoot-out stood in
the way of glory this time, but because this is a young side, the players have
time on their side and are widely expected to be major contenders in big
tournaments for years to come - not least next year’s World Cup.
However the team might get on in Qatar, their fine PR,
strong media relations and vastly improved image will ensure they travel to the
gulf on a wave of goodwill.
All the amazing things Marcus Rashford has done for England | Metro News
England football racism: Black and Asian fans 'so proud' of Southgate's team - BBC News
