ba given longer runway by liverpool fc

British Airways has now suddenly been given a longer runway to get its wings and sort out its PR mess by the most unlikely of sources, Liverpool Football Club. The crown of “PR ineptitude” has changed hands (or heads?) this week following a public playground-like spat by the football club’s American owners.

George Gillett and Tom Hicks only bought the club a year ago. Six months on, their relationship had broken down. Reports of an approach for another manager soured the atmosphere within the club and undermined the position of its manager, Rafael Benitez.

To make matters even worse Hicks has now twice in one week publicly called for the resignation of the club‘s CEO. Gillett has now responded, backing the CEO up, ultimately turning the club into a laughing stock. Remember, this is the club that set the benchmark for keeping everything in-house and out of the paper.

As such BA and LFC do not have much in common, if anything. What links these two cases is the total inability to handle their own communications through periods of adversity. One of the key PR elements is common sense. Apparently there’s none of that left, neither at BA nor at Liverpool FC.