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Poor old “Terry Henry”, he has had his Wikipedia page defaced and been the butt of jokes all over the internet, but after his shocking handball (even Arsene Wenger saw it!) should his PR team be worrying?
Despite what some sports PR experts believe in this weeks PR Week I think the answer is yes. Football is a passionate game and the fans spend millions. The game is littered with players who have made mistakes and by not reacting in the appropriate way have suffered.
Henry is widely regarded as one of the games greats, and rightly so, but his reputation is certainly now tarnished. He was captain on the night and he could have followed players such as Fowler and Di-Canio who demonstrating the type of sportsmanship rarely seen these days. Don’t get me wrong, these guys were never saints but people remember them as great sportsmen. Fowler argued with a ref about a penalty that never was and Di-Canio stopped play when he could have scored because the opposing keeper was injured.
So what should he have done?
1. Been open and honest straight away
2. Apologised
3. Said that he thought a replay was a good idea (would never happen)
Unfortunately Thierry chose to come out with a statement a little too late. I’m sure that people would have found it more believable if he had said it closer to the actual event rather than after a campaign by the public.
Tags: crisis management, handball, PR, thierry Henry
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