Let the ESL debacle be a warning for money-hungry businessman

I’ll wager a pint that all those involved in the Super League thought they’d get even richer with no questions asked. How wrong they were, writes Chris Blackhurst

Football fans voice their anger outside Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (AP)

For many in business, the initials PR and ESG are anathemas. They simply don’t take them seriously – often, despite professing to the contrary. The specialists in PR or communications or “comms” and ESG or environment, social and governance or goodness or doing the right thing are regarded as peripheral. They don’t receive a place on the mainboard, frequently they’re not afforded a seat on the key executive committee. They’re add-ons, nice things to have but not essential.  

Well, another set of initials should put an end to that way of thinking, once and for all: ESL. If ever there was an example of why PR and ESG matter it was the debacle of the would-be European Super League.  

Within 48 hours of it being announced the new football league of some of Europe’s top clubs was scrapped. Why? Because those involved paid nowhere near enough attention to the public relations and wider impacts of what they were proposing.