The curious case of Fulham Football Club

The curious case of Fulham Football Club

Tom Reynolds

Tom Reynolds

When eccentric billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed sold Fulham to fellow billionaire Shahid Khan in July 2013, many thought that would be the end of random Michael Jackson statues and various other shenanigans. How wrong we were.

Since buying the club, Khan has sacked two managers, spent loads of money and has seen Fulham go from relegation survivors to relegation fodder. The events of the last week or so have almost been a touch of the old regime.

On Friday 14th February, Fulham got all romantic and announced the hiring of Felix Magath as their new manager on their website. Fairly standard practise these days, except for the small detail that they already have a manager.

The Fulham Football ClubRene Meulensteen took over from Martin Jol in November 2013. The recent announcement from Fulham suggests that he has now been sacked; however, they completely forgot to mention Meulensteen in their announcement.

Pretty poor communications practise overall. Since Friday, most of the football press have been kept in the dark. Meulensteen himself seems pretty unclear, telling BBC Sport “they have hit the panic button on emotion and fear”, despite reports suggesting Meulensteen would be remaining as head coach.

Of course, all this could have been avoided with clear communications. Fulham’s statement on Magath is all well and good, but not mentioning your current head coach in the statement sends out a very unclear message to the media and supporters

Since then, Fulham seems adamant that it wants him to stay, with rumours suggesting it is trying to keep Meulensteen on board.

In the world of communications, everything is under scrutiny, especially in the world of football. It’s bizarre to see Fulham making such an obvious and embarrassing faux pas. At a time when their focus should be on avoiding the drop, they’ve dropped themselves in it off the field.

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