“The fashion for bright PR in football is gaining momentum” – Kommersant FM

The Ural football club has released T-shirts with the silent Viktor Goncharenko. After the match of the 10th round of the RPL “Rostov” – “Ural”, the head coach of the team from Yekaterinburg ignored all the questions from the press representatives, the coach was simply silent. The club responded quickly. A T-shirt with the corresponding image and the inscription “No words” went on sale. The action attracted the attention of fans of other teams. At the same time, not only clubs, but also the Russian Football Union are trying to interest the target audience. Does this help the development of domestic football? Kommersant FM sports commentator Vladimir Osipov looked into it.

Clubs have been using bright PR moves for a long time, but if previously this happened infrequently, now such campaigns are becoming more and more serious. Even one of the most ossified structures in domestic football – the RFU – is now in trend: either the Cup match will be held on a floating natural gas production platform, or they will propose to conduct a so-called battle of views, face-to-face, before the games, like in boxing or the UFC, and even with the participation of players and coaches.

The new PR team at the RFU is doing everything right, says football manager Yuri Belous:

“If we consider football as an entertainment industry, show business, and not just as a sport, then we must say that this is wonderful.

Let’s just say that young guys came to the PR department who approach this matter very creatively and involve such football players as Yegor Titov, Dmitry Alenichev.

Others travel to regions and promote sports, and this is one of the most important tasks of the Russian Football Union. That’s what they have to do, and I think it’s doing quite well.”

The Premier League and clubs are not lagging behind the RFU. Although in the case of Ural, the team coach Viktor Goncharenko hardly coordinated his actions with the PR service, but it turned out cool.

How many times have referees made mistakes in championship matches, how many times have coaches then angrily expressed their opinions on this matter and, by the way, have been subject to sanctions by the control and disciplinary committee.

And then the silence of Viktor Goncharenko attracted more attention than any words. Although the action itself looked, of course, strange. The correspondent asks a question, and in response the coach just looks at the journalist and remains silent.

But then the club’s PR service worked brilliantly. They decided not only to attract the attention of everyone around them, but also to monetize the scandal. This is the first time something like this has happened in our football, and everyone who buys a T-shirt with Goncharenko’s eyes and the inscription “No words” will receive a souvenir for life. Fans sometimes inherit such artifacts from their children.

So the fashion for bright PR in football is gaining momentum, and even those events that, it would seem, do not need special advertising, are now still presented colorfully.

A striking example is the upcoming Dynamo-Spartak derby in the Russian Cup. The blue and white team made a preview of the meeting in the style of the famous video game Mortal Kombat, and everything was in order with the graphics and presentation in the computer video.

This shows that clubs have begun to allocate larger sums for PR than before. If this continues, you’ll see that club TV channels will reach another level.

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