Reputation in Sport

Lord Triesman has clearly had a torrid time since talking of referee bribery at the forthcoming World Cup. There has been much talk in the press about damage to reputation but whose reputation do we mean? This particular saga offers examples of three types: reputation of the person, Lord Triesman: reputation of the organisation, the English Football Association; and reputation of a place, England as current bidders to host the 2018 World Cup. The whole story causes some reputation damage to all three.

Firstly, Lord Triesman the person has suffered damage as he is the one who made the controversial remarks about referee bribery while Chairman of the FA and ambassador for England. Hasty removal from his post at the FA ensured that the Association was trying to limit its own reputation damage by ‘association’ with him.

Secondly the Football Association has suffered damage through appointing as Chairman someone who would stray off message at such a sensitive time. Subsequent revelations by a former Chairman, Ian Watmore, compound the belief that the FA is not a steady and well managed ship. It has ignored the financial realities of paying player wages in excess of gate receipts and its reputation as a disorganised organisation has been compounded. Not so much damage as affirmation.

Thirdly the National picture: David Beckham and Lord Triesman had just presented a weighty bid document, the case for hosting a future World Cup in England. If ever the English game needed to appear squeaky clean on the world stage it was now, talking of referee bribery as a fact of life was certainly going to raise a few eyebrows. Has this damaged our chances? Of course it has. For evidence look at the London bombings on 7 July 2005, if they had been a few days earlier then London would have appeared too insecure a city to merit hosting an Olympic Games.

Whether it is a snooker player or goalkeeper suspected of match fixing the press interest is the same, outrage and feigned disgust. These stories sell papers and there is often a suggestion of entrapment by over-zealous journalists. We forget that sport is now big business not just for the betting syndicates of the far East but for media moguls, the rules are constantly adjusted to make some sports more entertaining for a mass audience as opposed to a knowledgeable but minority audience, look at rugby union or formula one racing.*

This week saw the death of Charlie Francis better known as the Canadian coach responsible for the doping scandal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics when Ben Johnson ran a world record 9.79 second 100 metres. For those who remember seeing the run it was amazing, but the discovery of performance enhancing drugs turned Johnson from hero to zero overnight. The person suffered immediate reputation damage, the sports regulator suffered reputation damage for failing to eradicate the problem, but moreover Canada suffered reputation damage as the nation that had sent a cheat to the games.

Reputation damage touches not only the person but the organisation and place as well.

* See also article of 16 September on ‘Bloodgate’ and ‘Crashgate’, entitled ‘Does reputation matter any more?’