Calacus Weekly Hit & Miss – Alan Pardew & Amelie Mauresmo

Every week we look at the best and worst communicators in the sports world from the previous week.

HIT - ALAN PARDEW

To be a successful football manager, or to thrive in any leadership role for that matter, you sometimes have to take a stand despite the personal cost.

You have to lead by example - something that we have seen sadly absent in many leaders in recent months and years.

Former Premier League manager Alan Pardew resigned from his role as manager and technical director of CSKA Sofia, one of the leading football clubs in Bulgaria, last week on a matter of principle.

His resignation, coupled with the resignation of his assistant manager, Alex Dyer, the first black man to hold a coaching role at the club, came as a response to racist abuse from CSKA Sofia fans, who threw bananas and directed racist abuse at four of their own players following their arrival for a recent match against Botev Plovdiv. The team initially refused to play in the game but were later persuaded to do so.

CSKA’s fans had been angered by a cup final loss to derby rivals Levski Sofia a week earlier, targeting minority players with racist abuse.

Pardew quit the Bulgarian club just 34 days after being appointed as full-time manager. He had planned to continue in his role next season after holding talks with the club following their Bulgarian Cup final defeat to rivals Levski Sofia last month.

In a statement he said: “First, I want to thank all the real CSKA fans for their support and passion for the club. To Grisha and Dani Ganchevi for their efforts to bring the club forward in such challenges and circumstances.

“It was a privilege for me to be a part of and to serve this club! Unfortunately, my time here is over! The events before and after the match with Botev (Plovdiv) were not acceptable for me, for my assistant Alex Dyer, or for our players. The reason no one gave an interview after the meeting was that we were all very outraged by the situation that had escalated.

“Our players decided to play only out of loyalty and to protect the club. The small group of organized racist fans who tried to sabotage this match is not what I want to lead and represent the team. Definitely, this is not the right path for the benefit of CSKA, because such a club deserves much more.

“I would like to especially thank the captain Jurgen Matai and the players, the former ones, the staff and the staff for their brilliant support, especially Hristo Stoichkov, Filip Filipov and Iva Warren. I hope that the club and all those who really care about it will unite, because only together and united can we progress and pursue great goals.”

It should have been an easy decision for Pardew and Dyer to make, but a brave one nonetheless. Pardew is now out of work and will now have to look elsewhere for a management job.

For years Bulgarian football has been plagued by racism in its stadiums. In 2011, the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) was fined after England players Ashley Young, Ashley Cole and Theo Walcott were subjected to racist abuse from fans during a European Championship qualifier.

During a 6-0 home defeat to England in a Euro 2020 qualifier, the game was halted twice as fans were warned about racist behaviour including Nazi salutes and monkey chanting.

UEFA have often been criticised for their lenient punishments to clubs and nations who have been racist to players in international games. Indeed, the Bulgarian FA were  ordered by UEFA to play their next competitive home game following the England loss behind closed doors, with a further match suspended for two years after the racist chanting. Bulgaria were also fined 75,000 euros (£65,000).

This was seen as a light punishment by many, which could enable the behaviour that led to Pardew admirably resigning from his post.

The England team have had far too many racist chants aimed at their players in recent times. Just last year, England players were racially abused during their 4-0 win over Hungary in Budapest having been booed when they took a knee prior to the World Cup Qualifier.

Hungary got off lightly, having to play their next home World Cup qualifier behind closed doors and pay a fine of 200,000 Swiss francs (£158,000) as punishment for the racist abuse.

Last Saturday, England were once again in Hungary, this time for a Nations League game at the Puskas Arena.

Coach Gareth Southgate said England were "surprised" that at least 35,000 fans would attend the behind-closed-doors fixture and voiced concerns that anti-racism punishments are affecting the wrong people.

The problems of racism in football are not confined to overseas, though.

Just last month, Kick It Out  said that hate is “alive and well” in English football following racist abuse by Everton supporters targeting Brentford players’ families and after Burnley fans were arrested for discriminatory gestures.

It will be interesting to see where Alan Pardew ends up next, and if any other managers or players follow his lead and are willing to risk their jobs in order to stand up for what is right.

MISS – AMELIE MAURESMO

The much-anticipated French Open match between clay court King Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, competing in his first Grand Slam of the year after being controversially expelled from Australia in January, certainly lived up to expectations.

The marathon match started at 845pm local time and lasted four hours, 12 minutes, finishing beyond 1am last Wednesday, prompting debate about the timings of such games.

It also caused logistical issues, with many of the 15,000 spectators unable to use public transportation to get home and local broadcasters unhappy at the late conclusion.

Nadal, through the media, and his manager, Carlos Costa, made clear that he preferred not to play at night, because of the way the cooler temperatures affect his shots, having dropped below 60 degrees Fahrenheit during the match.

Amelie Mauresmo, the newly-appointed French Open tournament director, faced the media the following day where the topic of the late starts and the schedule in general came up for debate.

Mauresmo was clearly unprepared for the questioning that followed the Nadal - Djokovic quarter-final, particularly when it became clear that only one of the 10 night sessions at this year's event was a women's match.

As former Women’s world number one, who won the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2006, Mauresmo’s response essentially belittled the women’s game and disparaged the entire WTA Tour.

Mauresmo said: “In this era we are in right now – and as a woman, a former woman's player, I don't feel bad or unfair saying this – you have more attraction and appeal, in general, for the men's matches.

“As far as I'm concerned, night sessions in the stadium are definitely appropriate, because it was always full to the brim every night.

“There was a real enthusiasm. People could actually work during the day and yet watch the match during the evening.

“It's the first year that I'm the tournament director. I'm learning a lot of things regarding the scheduling of the tournament. We will actually have a feedback session on this at the end, but it's just 10 night matches overall.

“Having such late matches could actually trigger some questions. I'm wondering about it myself. My goal was, when I was doing the schedule every day, to try and see, from the first round, when the draw came out... what match in the woman's draw can I put there? Honestly.”

Understandably, Mauresmo’s comments were met with indignation by current professionals.

Even without the star power of 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams, who has not competed since getting injured at Wimbledon nearly a year ago, the women’s game has continued to be popular, with Emma Raducanu’s victory from qualifying in the US Open last autumn one the most memorable sporting moments of the 2021.

Top seed Iga Swiatek said: “I think women's tennis has a lot of advantages. It is a little bit disappointing and surprising because she was also in the WTA.

"From my point of view, for every player it's more convenient to play at a normal hour, but for sure I want to entertain and I also want to show my best tennis in every match.

"So I think it's kind of the personal opinion of every person if they like men's tennis or women's tennis more, or if they like them equally.

"And some may say that it's unpredictable and girls are not consistent. But on the other hand it may also be something that is really appealing and it may really attract more people. So it depends on the personal views of some people."

Eleventh seed Jessica Pegula, believes that Mauresmo’s stance is “not something you want to hear,” and noted that the best way to grow interest in any sport is “to have chances” to show how good the product is.

“Of course, it’s always a little disappointing to hear that’s her reasoning, being a female ... Slam champion. But hopefully we can change that.”

“To me, I feel like so many people love watching women’s tennis because we don’t have huge serves. We’re not acing. There’s not a lot of super, super quick points,” Pegula said. “There’s more rallies. There’s more drama.”

With no access to public transport and television audiences waning, Mauresmo was at least candid about her lack of experience and the problems that need to be eradicated before next year’s event.

Why they had not been considered ahead of this, one of the four tennis Grand Slams

Speaking about transport issues, Mauresmo added: “That's actually a key issue that needs to be settled, and that will be one of our priorities in the future. We haven't planned anything yet, but obviously we need to organise ourselves differently with bus systems, with the underground system.

“If we continue with these night sessions, people need to leave the stadium late enough and make sure that they have a way to come back home. We do not have the means to organise this for 15,000 people yet. For the moment, there is nothing.”

Host broadcaster France TV was also upset by the scheduling, which handed exclusivity to Amazon Prime.

Chief Executive Delphine Ernotte said that she was “deeply shocked” by the decision to put Nadal-Djokovic on at night and thus hand exclusive rights to Amazon Prime.

“It's a very bad blow to our partnership, as we have been involved for years in exposing and popularising the tournament with all French people," she added, before complaining of the "privatisation of sport to the detriment of those who cannot afford it.”

Mauresmo responded: “I can understand that they are not happy with this choice but we should actually make sure that this relationship with France TV is a peaceful one. We do not want to make things awful between us. That's not the objective at all.”

A few days later, Mauresmo, presumably now having taken some professional communications advice, reigned back from her initial comments.

She clarified: “I want to say sorry to the players that really felt bad about what I said.

“The comments I made were taken out of context. The people who know me, who've known me on and off the court, throughout my career, throughout everything that I've done, know I'm a big fighter for equal rights and women's tennis, women in general.”

Clearly Mauresmo has a lot to learn about communication, being prepared for lines of questioning and issues that may arise during such a high profile tournament.

Her chaotic answers did little to fuel confidence in the event or indeed of women’s tennis in general.

That’s why it is so important for communications teams to provide support, briefings and training for any executive likely to face the media – and work with them to address any potential issues before they occur.

It will be fascinating to see what changes at the French Open next year and how that translates to Mauresmo’s external communications.