IPRA: Is it time to stop thinking of sports stars as role models?

While elite sport has been bedevilled by many scandals, the highs outweigh the lows and countless brands continue to boost their image through sponsorship and other alliances.

By David Alexander.

“Sports stories are a rich seam of human interest material.

“Sport embraces nobility and scandal, heroes and crooks, endurance and cheating, academics and morons, bravery and chicanery, artistry and ugliness.

“There are days when sport reaches the sublime heights of unscripted theatre and draws from men and women performers resources of nerve and skill beyond human comprehension.” - The late Ian Wooldridge, Daily Mail Chief Sports Writer

When I started as a journalist in the 1990s, mobile phones were only just becoming popular, sports stars could still have a private life and, in football at least, two or three-day drinking marathons were not unusual.

Sport was also associated with scandal and tragedy.

The Heysel Stadium disaster in 1985 when 39 Juventus fans died as their side faced Liverpool in the European Cup final (remarkably the game was still played) typified the constant shadow of football hooliganism that tainted English football.

So why would major brands be so keen to associate themselves with sports stars, clubs and competitions when the risks in associating with them are so high?

The drinks company, Diageo, recently ended a long-term partnership with rugby club London Irish after they signed Paddy Jackson. The former Irish international was cleared in 2018 of rape along with his team-mates but such was the offence caused by the messages he wrote in a chat group about the incident and his attitude to women that his former club Ulster terminated his contract.

Football has moved on from the days of hooliganism and while some issues such as racism at matches still occur, it has become a much more family-orientated sport since the introduction of all-seater stadia.

Players still get into trouble, with marital strife, drunken behaviour and old social media posts getting players into trouble with their clubs.

It’s notable that one or two former England football captains struggled to get substantial sponsorship endorsements most likely because of their reputations.

To read the full article on the International Public Relations Association website, please click HERE