The Crisis Communication for Professional Sport (CCPS) framework: An analysis of stakeholder communication during the European Super League crisis

This thesis addresses the under-researched field of crisis communication within the professional sport industry by proposing a novel holistic framework, Crisis Communication for Professional Sport (CCPS). Established crisis communication models are ill-suited to the evolving and increasingly complex communicative environment of the digital era (Frandsen & Johansen, 2017). Mainstream theory tends to adopt a top-down organisational perspective that is overly prescriptive, as well as being limited when applied to sport. It does not capture the nuanced complexities of crises within this distinctive industry, whereby organisations are able to play a different set of rules and exploit stakeholder relationships. The more recent rhetorical arena theory (Frandsen & Johansen, 2017), which emphasises dynamic and complex stakeholder interactions during a crisis, is identified as a more apt approach to theorising crisis communication. However, there remains a clear need for a tailored approach to sport which accounts for the sector's unique cultural dynamics.

This research is centred around the European Super League (ESL) crisis in 2021, involving 12 elite football clubs attempting to create a breakaway competition that threatened the traditional structure of European football. It is a prime example of a systemic crisis (Liu et al., 2023) in sport, drawing in a wide range of affected stakeholders, including fans, media, governing bodies and clubs across different countries, particularly England, Spain and Italy (where the participating clubs play their domestic league matches). The case provides a valuable lens to explore the limitations of existing crisis communication models and to develop a more adaptable and holistic framework suitable for sport.

The study uses a mixed-method approach, employing a combination of exploratory quantitative content analysis and qualitative thematic analysis to provide a detailed examination of communication around the ESL. The communication of involved and affected stakeholders was collected and analysed. This comprised of official statements, press releases, interviews given by representatives, social media posts and news reports. The case demonstrates how stakeholder reactions, particularly fan reactions, can play a pivotal role in shaping crisis outcomes, highlighting the centrality of cultural and contextual factors in sport crises. It also underscores how sporting culture, and the varying stakeholder expectations associated with it, is a critical element to consider when managing crises.

Identifying the ways in which sport is unique as an industry through specific features and stakeholder relationships is one of the key contributions of this thesis. The communication strategies used by ESL clubs reflect how sport organisations can exploit these features, often employing inconsistent and unorthodox strategies which contradict what considered best practice according to mainstream theory (Manoli, 2016; Pang et al., 2022; Stieglitz et al., 2019). The influence of sporting culture is another important consideration, overlooked by club owners and executives, who disregarded the values and expectations of local fans in their attempts to appeal to a more global fanbase. This was particularly poignant in England compared to Spain and Italy, where the volatile relationship between club owners and governing bodies was a higher priority. This reflected unique institutional tensions between regulators and organisations (Meier et al., 2024), whereby a power struggle has been brought about by conflicting interests. Thus, both sporting and regional cultural factors must be integrated into crisis communication strategies to avoid mismanagement and potential backlash from key stakeholders (Johansen, 2018).

The CCPS framework offers theoretical insights and practical applications for sport organisations communication practitioners. It provides a flexible and dynamic framework that can be adapted to various sport-specific crisis scenarios, helping organisations better prepare for, manage and respond to crises in a way that maintains stakeholder trust. The insights offered in this thesis and the offering of CCPS as the first holistic framework for understanding sport crises through communication advances academic discourse in a novel way. It provides a new direction for researchers and for practitioners, ultimately aiming to improve the effectiveness of crisis communication in sport and protect the interests of all stakeholders involved.