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Opinion

Mexican Standoff for Premier League as Marketing and Legal clash over Newcastle United takeover

4 years ago
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Keep hitting the Premier League where it hurts. Don’t give up. We have the upper hand and we can win this.

One day, we’ll see the change we deserve.

As fans who desperately want change, we can’t let that happen. It must never go away. We must never relent and the PL must learn this. It’ll go away when they relent. When they blink.

The Premier League silence is deafening. Ironically, it’s speaking volumes – here’s why:

In any business, there are competing interests between marketing and legal. Marketing want to big up the product, make outlandish claims and generate revenue. Legal want to stop marketing scoring own goals.

They’re often in conflict…

Take Carlsberg. The Marketing Dept probably wanted to say: “The Best Lager in the World” until somebody in Legal raised an eyebrow and the Copywriter hastily added “…probably.” Trust me, Legal always get the final word.

Why’s this relevant? Because the Premier League’s Marketing Dept are bricking it right now. The concerted efforts by fans to get the takeover to the top of the agenda. The petition, the social media barracking, the MPs letters… It’s all working.

To any Marketing Exec, the brand is sacred. Anything that damages the brand needs to be mitigated immediately. And it isn’t just the Premier League’s brand at stake. Budweiser, Coca-Cola, Barclays – they’re all feeling the pressure.

And when it comes to contract renewal time, these sponsors will be saying to the Premier League, “Your brand’s tainted and it affects our brands too. We can’t offer you what we have before. Sorry, not our fault.” The campaign’s hitting the PL in the pocket and they know it.

Every tweet the PL post is being bombarded with “Corruption” and there’s no way the PL Marketing Team are unaware of the campaign. And by now they must realise that this isn’t going away. So what’s the default action? Release a statement. But why haven’t they?

Because any statement has to be passed by Legal. They have the final word. And they won’t pen a statement for Richard Masters. He must be on his knees begging to say something, anything. But he can’t.

Why can’t he?

Because they f.cked up. Simple. They’ve manoeuvred their way into a Mexican Standoff because, instead of applying the rules, they let external pressures influence them. As soon as they acknowledge the situation, they’ll have blinked.

They can’t explain the delay because there’s no good reason for it. They can’t release a non-committal nonsense statement because that will invite further questions. Their only hope is that if they stay quiet long enough, all this will go away.

As fans who desperately want change, we can’t let that happen. It must never go away. We must never relent. And the PL must learn this. It’ll go away when they relent. When they blink.

Keep hitting the Premier League where it hurts. Don’t give up. We have the upper hand and we can win this.

One day, we’ll see the change we deserve.

You can follow Tim on Twitter @timmay2606

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