If you are building a community club, bringing the community into the club and extending the club into the community then being as open and transparent as is possible is not a distant ideal, it is an absolute essential. It is central to the nature of the club or should be.
It is simply nonsense to have a section entitled News on your website and then when there is news, or the club itself is actually IN THE NEWS, to pretend that is not happening. As Dancing points out that is precisely where conspiracy theories start. The club ends up looking either bad, or incompetent. Wherever you can, you should set the agenda, say what you know you can say, explain that there may be other stuff the club is not either allowed to say, or may simply be unaware of, and address the concerns of those who invest their money in the club every week as far as you can.
Issues can be sensitive like the Tshimanga non-transfer. If medical details are involved, they are both personal to the player and may affect his future value in any transfer deal. But dealing with it, or anything else by saying NOWT is NOT DEALING with it. That is where skill, sensitivity and occasionally legal advice are necessary.
Behind some of these matters lies the issue that almost all branches of the law move at an unnecessarily molluscular pace. How can it take the police weeks to arrest the perpetrator of the Hope "attack"? If it was known to be a Chesterfield player then the identity was known. He wasn't in full kit! Similarly James Rowe has now lost two jobs over his case. What if he's not guilty? Similarly, the poor woman involved must see this incident stretching endlessly into her future as she waits to go through the torture of testifying. (Ryan Giggs won't be capable of punching anyone by the time a decision is reached on that one!) No wonder women don't bring cases to court ......
The reality of communication is very much illustrated in today's Daily Mail. Two articles deliberately side by side, one James Rowe resigning, the other the Hope arrest. At no point is there mention of anything done or said by the club, other than we sacked Rowe. We end up looking like a cowboy outfit, women and opposition not safe from us, yet we did absolutely the right thing in supporting the victim rather than our successful manager. That's why managing what you say with skill and sensitivity without prejudicing the case itself is vital. It's hard, but then so is getting out of the National League,
It is simply nonsense to have a section entitled News on your website and then when there is news, or the club itself is actually IN THE NEWS, to pretend that is not happening. As Dancing points out that is precisely where conspiracy theories start. The club ends up looking either bad, or incompetent. Wherever you can, you should set the agenda, say what you know you can say, explain that there may be other stuff the club is not either allowed to say, or may simply be unaware of, and address the concerns of those who invest their money in the club every week as far as you can.
Issues can be sensitive like the Tshimanga non-transfer. If medical details are involved, they are both personal to the player and may affect his future value in any transfer deal. But dealing with it, or anything else by saying NOWT is NOT DEALING with it. That is where skill, sensitivity and occasionally legal advice are necessary.
Behind some of these matters lies the issue that almost all branches of the law move at an unnecessarily molluscular pace. How can it take the police weeks to arrest the perpetrator of the Hope "attack"? If it was known to be a Chesterfield player then the identity was known. He wasn't in full kit! Similarly James Rowe has now lost two jobs over his case. What if he's not guilty? Similarly, the poor woman involved must see this incident stretching endlessly into her future as she waits to go through the torture of testifying. (Ryan Giggs won't be capable of punching anyone by the time a decision is reached on that one!) No wonder women don't bring cases to court ......
The reality of communication is very much illustrated in today's Daily Mail. Two articles deliberately side by side, one James Rowe resigning, the other the Hope arrest. At no point is there mention of anything done or said by the club, other than we sacked Rowe. We end up looking like a cowboy outfit, women and opposition not safe from us, yet we did absolutely the right thing in supporting the victim rather than our successful manager. That's why managing what you say with skill and sensitivity without prejudicing the case itself is vital. It's hard, but then so is getting out of the National League,