Calacus Weekly Hit & Miss – Lionesses & Alpine
Every week we look at the best and worst communicators in the sports world from the previous week.
HIT - THE LIONESSES
The Women’s Euro Final captured the imagination of the nation.
A record Wembley crowd of 87, 192 fans attended with a remarkable 17.4 million watching on the BBC, making it the most-watched women’s football game ever shown on UK TV.
More than 18 million people also watched the match in Germany.
The record-shattering event was capped off with a historic extra-time Lionesses win, with substitutes Ella Toone and Chloe Kelly scoring the decisive goals to secure an England major tournament win for the first time since 1966 – as well as it being the first time the national team have won the European Championships.
The inspirational performances from the Lionesses throughout the tournament has inspired the public and football fans, taking the women’s game to a whole new level.
Domestic women’s football has been positively impacted thanks to the success of the tournament, having reported significant increases in interest from fans.
Newly promoted side Liverpool have experienced a 254% increase in ticket sales and Man City, who England’s match-winner Kelly plays for, have had their figures doubled to a record level. Brighton and Hove Albion have also reported a 249% increase in season ticket sales for their upcoming campaign.
Straight after the final, Arsenal and England legend Ian Wright – a champion of women’s football - passionately argued for increased access to WSL games to help grow the domestic game.
He said: "What we want to see is we want people to be able to go to the WSL games. We want to make it easier for those people to go to the WSL games.
"For instance we've got the first few games of the season, [Arsenal] are playing against Man City at 7pm on a Sunday night and it's on television. That's not encouraging people to get there, how're they going to get there?
“We've got to make it easier for people to get there, get people in the stadiums because these are the players that they're watching. Two of those clubs, Arsenal and Man City, they've got stacks in this tournament of players and they have to play at that time.
"Who does that? Who makes that decision? The players want fans in those stadiums. You've got to make it easier for them to get there. Why don't they have an away end allocation? Why do I as an Arsenal fan have to be a member of all the WSL teams to get to an away game? They've got to move those barriers.
“This generation of ladies have had to fight and scrap for everything. It's up to the FA, I think the FA should take over grassroots and get rid of all those barriers to get more people into the grounds.
"For me, someone like the Premier League take over, commercialising the WSL. We need to get more money into the women's game in order to get more quality teams and start to really blast the women's game."
The Lionesses themselves have immediately felt the impact of the final, with 20,000 tickets already sold for their World Cup qualifier vs Luxemburg, along with selling-out Wembley in under 24 hours for their return against world champions USA, leading to the website crashing due to the increased demand.
The impact of the Lionesses’ success has reaped rewards for other women’s sports too, with ticket sales soaring for the England women’s rugby fixtures taking place in September, ahead of their upcoming World Cup campaign.
With this new-found momentum the women’s game – and women’s sports by extension - has seen, the European Champions are aiming to use their triumph as a catalyst for positive change and increased resources to help inspire the next generation of girls who love to play football.
But, despite this energy, the Department for Education has refused to commit to ensuring that girls have equal access to football in schools.
Government guidance published by the DfE fails to guarantee that schoolgirls will be offered the same football lessons as boys, but says they should instead be offered “comparable activities”.
A report by England Football, part of the FA, found that only 44% of secondary schools in England offer girls equal access to football in PE lessons.
While football is the most popular team sport for young people in England, only a third of girls aged five to 18 participate each week.
With these worrying figures, and a seeming lack of urgency by the government to rectify the state of girls football in schools, the Lionesses squad released an open-letter to Conservative leadership candidates Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss pleading for their support in helping schoolgirls play football at every level.
The letter, signed by each member of the squad, said: “Dear Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, On Sunday evening history was made. The dreams of 23 women came true. England became European Champions for the first time in history.
"Throughout the Euros, we as a team spoke about our legacy and goal to inspire a nation. Many will think that this has already been achieved, but we see this as only the beginning.
"We are looking to the future. We want to create real change in this country and we are asking you, if you were to become Prime Minister on 5 September, to help us achieve that change.
“We want every young girl in the nation to be able to play football at school. Currently, only 63% of girls can play football in PE lessons. The reality is we are inspiring young girls to play football, only for many to end up going to school and not being able to play.
“This is something that we all experienced growing up. We were often stopped from playing, so we made our own teams, we travelled across the country and despite the odds, we just kept playing football.
“Women's football has come a long way. But it still has a long way to go.
"We ask you and your government to ensure that all girls have access to a minimum of two hours a week of PE. Not only should we be offering football to all girls, we also need to invest and support female PE teachers too. Their role is crucial and we need to give them the resources to provide girls’ football sessions. They are key role models from which so many young girls can flourish.
"We have made incredible strides in the women’s game, but this generation of school girls deserve more. They deserve to play football at lunchtime, they deserve to play football in PE lessons and they deserve to believe they can one day play for England. We want their dreams to also come true.
"This is an opportunity to make a huge difference. A change that will impact millions of young girls’ lives. We – the 23 members of the England Senior Women’s Euro squad – ask you to make it a priority to invest into girls’ football in schools, so that every girl has the choice."
A spokeswoman for Liz Truss responded: “The Lionesses’ Euros win and record-breaking Wembley attendance will have a lasting impact on women’s football.
“Every member of the team should be proud of their contribution and the path they have paved for the next generation of girls.
“Liz wants equal access to all sports for boys and girls, and supports campaigns such as the FA’s Let Girls Play campaign.
“She is committed to investigating what prevents schools from delivering the recommended minimum of two hours PE per week.
“As part of her forthcoming spending review, her government would have the opportunity to look at how best to deliver for girls in schools across the UK.”
A spokesperson for Rishi Sunak said: “Like the rest of the country, Rishi has been inspired by England’s performance at the Euros and wants to use their inspirational success to get more women and girls into the game.
“Rishi passionately believes in the importance of sport for children’s development and would love to see all schools provide two hours of PE a week.
“He has already said that he will tighten the accountability that surrounds the primary school PE and sport premium to make sure children are receiving the education they deserve, and has also said he will ask Ofsted to inspect sport in schools as part of every inspection.
“He has also committed to launch a review of women’s football immediately if he is made Prime Minister to make sure that all women and girls have the opportunity to take part in the beautiful game.”
Only time will tell if these promises made by the leadership hopefuls aren’t just empty words and will result in change.
But one thing is for sure: the momentum and legacy of the historic success of the Lionesses will serve to put increased pressure on decision makers to expand women’s football.
This is what the beautiful game has been crying out for, and now the Lionesses have catapulted the sport to a new level, girls and young women should not have to fight to play England’s most popular sport.
MISS – ALPINE
In any organisation, be it a small corner shop or a global sports franchise, communication is vital.
In sport, that means communicating with sponsors, governing bodies, fans, broadcasters and your biggest assets, your athletes.
Internal communication often gets overlooked when it is just as vital, especially when explaining strategy or a line of messaging that addresses the issues of the day.
In that regard, Alpine’s school report reads “Could do better” after a week they would like to forget with the onset of the Formula One summer break and thoughts turning to next season.
Former world champion Fernando Alonso spoke before the Hungarian Grand Prix about his plans for negotiations with the team and gave the impression that he was planning on extending his contract which expires at the end of the season.
“I would like to stay here,” Alonso said. “But there are two parties and I will not put a gun to the head of anyone.
“If we agree on something, it will be a 10-minute conversation and if we have to fight too much it will be longer.
“My priority is to be with Alpine because we've been working and developing this project together for two years now. We are more and more competitive.
“And probably my wish is to stay but we didn't sit down completely and move things forward. So still, everything ongoing.”
A day after the Grand Prix, Alonso announced his plans to leave, tempted to sign for Aston Martin for the 2023 season.
Aston Martin issued a statement which said: “Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One™ Team is delighted to confirm that Fernando Alonso will join the team in 2023 on a multi-year contract.
“The whole company is very excited to bring Fernando's incredible experience and brilliant pace and racecraft to the team.
“The recruitment of a special talent such as Fernando is a clear statement of intent from an organisation that has committed to developing a winning Formula One team.”
Alpine chief Otmar Szafnauer admitted that the first he heard that Alonso was leaving was when the press release was published, ignoring rumours and expecting his star driver to extend his current deal.
He said: “I’d heard rumour Aston were interested. And once you hear they are interested there are probably discussions that took place.
“But I was confident that even with the discussions – there’s nothing wrong with exploring – we were very close.
“The first confirmation I had was the press release. I did ask the question [before leaving Hungary] and was told, ‘No, no, no I haven’t signed anything.”
Clearly losing Alonso was a shock to Alpine - and with corporate partners as well as fans to appease, they clearly wanted to resolve the uncertainty around next season swiftly.
From the leadership to the communications team, this crisis required calm and clear thinking rather than hasty pronouncements.
Alpine put out a tweet a day later announcing that Oscar Piastri would take Alonso’s place.
“2023 driver line-up confirmed: Esteban Ocon Oscar Piastri. After four years as part of the Renault and Alpine family, Reserve Driver Oscar Piastri is promoted to a race seat alongside Esteban Ocon starting from 2023.”
Szafnauer added that: “Oscar is a bright and rare talent. We are proud to have nurtured and supported him through the difficult pathways of the junior formulae.
"Through our collaboration over the past four years, we have seen him develop and mature into a driver who is more than capable of taking the step up to Formula 1."
Notably, the press release did not have a quote from Piastri and the reigning Formula 2 champion clearly hadn’t got the memo.
“I understand that, without my agreement, Alpine F1 have put out a press release late this afternoon that I am driving for them next year,” he stated.
“This is wrong and I have not signed a contract with Alpine for 2023. I will not be driving for Alpine next year.“
Alpine responded by insisting that Piastri’s contract obliges him to stay with them.
“He has contractual obligations to us, and we do to him, and we’ve been honouring those obligations all year,” Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer said to Autosport.
“And those obligations last through 2023, and possibly 2024, if some options are taken up. And our obligations to him this year was to be a reserve driver, to also put him in last year's car for a significant amount of time. We're well over half that programme of 5000 kilometres, which isn't insignificant, in last year's car, in preparation for a race next year.
“There shouldn't be any complications. If everyone is true to the agreements that they signed back only a few months ago, we should be able to move forward with the agreements that we have in place.
“It's more than just the financial investment, it's also an emotional one, and getting him ready for what we hope is a successful F1 career.
“Oscar is our number one preferred candidate. And that's what we're going to do.”
Piastri has been tipped to drive for McLaren for 2023, although there are also claims that that obligatory clause expired before Alonso’s departure meant Alpine had a slot free.
It’s all quite a mess and an example of disjointed thinking and communications which has left Alpine looking foolish, to say the least.
Alex Albon used the announcement of his own new contract with Williams to mock Alpine and said in a tweet, which coincided with Williams' announcement, said: "I understand that, with my agreement, Williams Racing have put out a press release this afternoon that I am driving for them next year.
"This is right and I have signed a contract with Williams for 2023. I will be driving for Williams next year."
Notably, Piastri responded to the tweet congratulating Albon on his humour, while opticians Specsavers also got in on the act - and the fact that the story has become a meme speaks volumes for how badly it has been handled.
It looks like Piastri has agreed a deal to race for McLaren in 2023 in place of Daniel Ricciardo, but there are plenty of crisis communications lessons here that underline the need for joined-up thinking and collaboration to avoid embarrassing and damaging episodes such as this.