During my 12-hour flight from Tokyo Narita Airport to
Washington Dulles yesterday, I had the thought that I would write this post. Of
course, as flights go, I was uncomfortable, anxious, and generally too lethargic
to put my thoughts into writing. On a
positive, I had plenty of time to think about what I wanted to present this week.
During the week I read quite a bit about negative
media coverage and how to overcome it. The
more I thought about it, the more I realized that as an American consuming
media, I was pre-conditioned to accept that media coverage is negative by
nature. As such I never really
differentiated between negative and positive coverage. Why would I? After all, isn’t positive
coverage just stuff that is made up to divert attention from the negative? The last 20 years of media coverage would
certainly suggest as much. Reading about
overcoming negative media coverage made me think back to 2006 when Serie A
(Italian Football’s Top Flight) was engulfed in its worst scandal in recent
history and what it has done in the 12 years since then.
In the 1980’s and 1990’s, Italy was home of the world’s
best football. This was where Diego
Maradona carried a mediocre Napoli side the glory. It was were Roberto Baggio and his divine
ponytail made Italy dream of winning another World Cup. Serie A boasted the most beautiful football
and the best players. Juventus’ Michel
Platini was arguably the best player in the world in the 80’s. It has even been said that the 7 best
defenders who ever played for AC Milan also happen to be the best 7 defenders
who ever lived. But in 2006, everything changed
and Italian football would never be the same.
The 2006 Italian Football Scandal, also known as the Calciopoli, was a major match-fixing incident
that involved Italy’s top two national football leagues, the Serie A and Serie
B. The scandal involved many of Italy’s
biggest teams including AC Milan, Lazio, Fiorentina, and Juventus, who were the
current UEFA Champions League holders.
Transcripts of telephone conversations detailed how key figures were
influencing referee appointments for Serie A matches. Consequently, Juventus was relegated to Serie
B and was given a table point deduction that meant they likely would not be
able to return to Serie A until 2008.
Although they did return to Serie A the following year by winning Serie
B, the relegation prompted the departure of key club figures such as Fabio Cannavaro
and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Across all
clubs, nearly 40 players, who were 2006 World Cup participants left for other
European clubs. In total, allegations of
corruption and sporting fraud were extended to players, managers, owners, and
even television personalities. For
instance, the host of Italy’s most viewed football show resigned when it came
to light that he collaborated with the General Manager of Juventus to boost
their television image on his show.
The effects of the scandal have been long-lasting and
so devastating that even Italy’s victory at the 2006 World Cup could not hide
the poor state of Italian league football.
More than a decade on, Serie A is struggling mightily. Italian teams have stretched themselves
financially to try and build teams that are competitive domestically and in European
competitions. Unfortunately, the collapse
of the Italian economy only made the problems worse and relegated the spending
of money on new players to short-term knee jerk reactions. Even today, despite having some great
players, the world’s top players have avoiding playing in Italy unless for a
top 3 team. AC Milan and Inter Milan, who were Italy’s two biggest international
marketing draws now flounder in the middle of the table and lose huge sums of
money by not qualifying for European tournaments.
It has been 12 since the Calciopoli and Serie A is
arguably worse than it has ever been. However,
the 2019 season has the potential to turn things around and Serie A has landed
a huge coup to help. That coup is named Cristiano Ronaldo. While the world was
distracted by the World Cup Final on July 15, Cristiano Ronaldo (who’s Portugal
side were already eliminated) covertly completed a 100 Euro transfer from Real
Madrid to Juventus. No player from the
Serie A has even been in the top 3 running for FIFA’s Ballon D’Or award in the
last decade. Ronaldo alone has won it 5 times. Once his signing was announced, Juventus had
the most social media activity of any other team in the world. Juventus’ YouTube views, which totaled 36
million views, were more than their previous 6 months combined. This phenomenon has since been dubbed “The Ronaldo
Effect”. A google search of The Ronaldo
Effect leads to dozens of articles detailing the ways that the Ronaldo signing
has helped not just Juventus, but Serie A return to the limelight of European football. One such article reports that in a 24 hour period,
Juventus sold $64 million dollars worth of Ronaldo jerseys (a half million
shirts). Juventus' Twitter received a 1.5 million follower increase in just a
day, and half a million new followers on Facebook. Another article reported that in total
Juventus gained 6 million social media followers and that Ronaldo’s previous
club, Real Madrid, was unfollowed by a million people.
In Lui, Horsely, and Yang’s publication Overcoming
Negative Media Coverage: Does Government Communication Matter?, it is stated
that trustworthiness is a significant factor considering that much the news
focuses on personalities in government rather than policies that are
enacted. In applying this statement to
the Juventus situations, it is clear that the point is valid. Serie A still has a mountain to climb and
Juventus supporters may not be 100 percent satisfied with the team ownership. There is still a stigma in Italian football,
but Ronaldo provides a personality to focus on.
He has been the subject of feature film documentaries, has his own brand
of clothes and footwear, has more social media followers than entire countries
populations, and a trophy cabinet that is second to none. Juventus has given him and all he brings to
its supporters and endeared Italian football to the world again.
Serie A may not be the worlds best, or even 4th best league, but it is still good enough to bring the world’s best known player. And that counts for something.
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