What FIFA has got 100% right, and most other sports 100% wrong.
There is a massive difference between pro and amateur sport. A distinction lost on most spectators and huge amount of sports administrators.
Most spectators and viewers honestly believe that when you are watching Arsenal and Chelsea play football or England play Australia in the ashes that they are watching a “grown up” version of school football or cricket or Old Parks playing Pirates. Wrong.
Pro sport is show business, the objective of which is to generate revenue. It does so from ticket sales, sponsorships, advertising and selling television rights in the main (also from merchandise sales etc)
It operates in the leisure time/entertainment market. It wins when people prefer to watch the event than do other stuff. Other stuff includes watching other sports, going to the movies, the pub, playing cards even staying home (or going out) and having sex. They are all alternative uses of that time and some alternative uses of that money.
If you are marketing that sport you would do exactly what you would do with any other brand, improve the product to make more interesting, exciting etc than the alternative. The real win is to get more and more people talking about it. I remember a time when the Transvaal Mean Machine would pack out Newlands cricket ground, and when Clive Rice walked onto the sold out ground the Mountain Goats (Capetonians) would boo. What a win.
Think about it. If you were marketing a sport would you rather have technology bringing certainty into every decision or people talking about the human refereeing mistakes. Would you rather have a John McEnroe on centre court (whom people remember decades later) than an endless stream of bland tennis players. Would you rather have newspapers speculating over whether the player was actually offsides when the goal was scored.
It is no accident that Football is the most popular sport on the planet, that FIFA can instruct governments, even get them to pass laws in their favour. Football has the perfect formula. It’s a beautiful flowing game with an unbeatable combination of strategy and skill. It also builds heroes, villains and controversy.
Its amazing to me that those calling for electronic surveillance and decision making on the football field don’t get that
professional football, especially the world cup, is the the biggest entertainment event the world has ever seen.
If I was consulting to FIFA would I suggest that they install goal line technology to judge whether the ball had actually crossed the line? Would I advise them to replace penalties with referee awarded goals (see my previous blog post)
Not on your life. I would want you to talk about it!
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