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FIFA’s image is broken
The media image of FIFA in international TV news 2007-2015
Rapperswil, May 27, 2015. Just two days before the opening of the FIFA congress in Zurich, FBI and Swiss police have searched the premises of the organization and arrested several staff members. This event confirms the bad news that have dominated the media image of FIFA for years. The latest analysis of the Swiss-based Media Tenor International shows that reports about the world soccer organization were already massively negative before the latest events.
“FIFA stands out among the big sports organizations with an exceedingly negative media image,” explains Dr. Christian Kolmer, Head of Political Research with Media Tenor International. While the International Olympic Committee has overcome a controversial past under the leadership of Thomas Bach, coverage of FIFA has become much worse since 2010, the year of the World Cup in Germany. In 2015, one third of the reports about FIFA in international TV news has been negative, only 3% had a positive tone. “This is an improvement on 2014, but the fact that FIFA was strongly criticized in the year of its top event, shows that the media have been scrutinizing FIFA’s dealings more thoroughly after the controversial awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar”, states Dr. Kolmer.
In the run-up to this year’s FIFA congress the criticism of FIFA’s long-term leader Sepp Blatter has dominated the news, but his challengers did not only receive limited coverage, their chances to replace Blatter were assessed as rather slim.
FIFA’s PR activities, focusing on the social benefits of soccer – embodied in the slogan “For the Game – for the World” - have so far not been sufficient in countering the recurring charges of corruption at the top and exploitation on the construction sites in Qatar. “Without a change at the helm of FIFA a real change in the media’s perception of the organization is very unlikely”, concludes Dr. Kolmer.
For this report Media Tenor International has analyzed all 615,389 reports about protagonists from 21 main evening news programs in Germany, South Africa, the U.K. and the U.S. All stories have been examined by human coders. Inter-coder reliability averaged 86% in the 4thquarter of 2014.
Contact: Dr. Christian Kolmer, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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