From champions to villains. How my football club destroyed its own reputation– and why that matters for your comms

In the (not particularly real) world of social media there’s been a bout of nostalgia for ten years ago, when people share thoughts and images of what their world looked like in 2016. Like any trend, it will pass before many have noticed it.

It’s been fun for me, though. The first few months of 2016 were so exciting, and for thousands of others who, like me, support Leicester City Football Club.

And I realise many of you will now scroll on, fearing another post by a football obsessive. Guilty as charged, but there is an important message for all communicators if you can bear to hang in there. Although my subject matter is football, it’s about how easy it is for organisations to lose trust when things turn difficult.  

The football bit

So, Leicester City has, historically, been a football club that has bounced between the top two leagues of English football. Indeed in the 2014/15 season it looked like we would be relegated from the top tier of English football once again.

But we survived.

And the next season, culminating in May 2016, we won the Premier League. Something we had never dreamt of achieving and will never achieve again.

As the possibility of an upset drew ever nearer during the spring of 2016, the Leicester City story was told around the world. My little club became a global sporting phenomenon. I remember a cover story in the Financial Times.

For a couple years after that triumph, Leicester City was portrayed as the world’s model football club.

Genuine tragedy strikes

Then tragedy struck, our Thai owner was killed in a helicopter crash as it left our ground one Saturday evening. Ownership passed to his son, and despite an FA Cup win in 2021, our club’s fortunes declined, and relegation followed in 2023.

Since then, things have gone from bad to worse. We’re alleged to have broken spending rules. Our player recruitment has been largely appalling. Supporter discontent has grown and grown.

Our Thai owners, who made their fortune from the King Power brand, have always kept themselves to themselves. Interviews have been rare, and of course when things were going well, no one minded. But when performance declined, people want reassurance. They want to feel that the owners have a plan they can believe in.

Latterly, the current chair of the football club has participated in two highly stage managed media events, but it feels too late. It feels he’s now chasing events, rather than getting ahead of them.

I see this happening way beyond the world of football. Organisations attempting to control the narrative, rather than being part of it. People see through it, and trust is diminished.

What advisers should do

Those of us working in communications cannot force the companies that we

represent to communicate when they would rather run for cover. When things get

difficult, these three questions are worth considering:

1. Are we still giving our best advice, or simply doing as we’re told?

2. Are we communicating with our stakeholders, or running for cover?

3. Are our communications genuinely addressing issues, or simply repeating platitudes?

PS – the final word – I wrote this piece before a six point deduction