A key role of a PR practitioner is media relations. In football, as well as publishing statements on the club’s official website, they will also be distributed to the national, regional and local press.
These statements will be written for news such as: a new signing, a managerial appointment or the changing of a club badge. Below are some examples:
After Inside The Game’s previous post on a how to in PR crisis management (read here), we will now offer a guide as for how to write a press release.
Typically, a press release that is being distributed to the media will consist of seven or eight paragraphs and one or two quotes. At the top of the release, you need to write the date, your name, the subject header and the page number. After this, you need to write NEWS RELEASE to state that it is for publication as well as writing your headline before writing the actual statement.
Your intro should be a basic summary of what the statement is going to be about and a maximum of 25 words. The next two paragraphs should expand on the intro by offering more information. The next paragraph will be a quote from someone who is central to story – in football, it will be someone like the CEO, chairman or manager. This will be either one or two paragraphs. The paragraph after the quotes will be some more relevant information. After this, there will be a second quote from someone who is also linked to the story. It will then end with a final piece of information.
After you have finished writing the statement, you must write “ENDS” along with your contact details at the bottom for the journalist in question.
Below, Inside The Game has written a basic template on how to write up the announcement of a new club manager. And with how often club’s chop and change their managers – you’ll definitely end up writing one!
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11/12/17 Mr. P McOfficer
Subject Header: Club announces new manager Page: 1
NEWS RELEASE
HEADLINE: [?] named as new [?] first-team manager
[?] FC are pleased to announce that [?] has taken over as first-team manager on a [?] year contract.
The club had a rigorous selection process for a new manager and [?] stood out with his wealth of experience in both managing at the higher and lower levels of the Football League.
[?] has previously managed at [?], [?] and [?]. He achieved promotion with both [?] and [?] in [?] and [?] respectively; as well as winning the League Manager of the Year Award in [?].
Speaking to the official site, chairman [?] welcomed him to the club by saying: “QUOTE 1.”
“QUOTE 1.”
The new manager has also named [?] as his assistant coach.
After being named as the club’s new manager, [?] also spoke of his delight: “QUOTE 2.”
His first game will be next Saturday’s game against [?] and we would like to welcome him to the club.
ENDS
Contact Info: 07xxxxxxxxx
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The club’s press officer will then send out the statement to the media for publication. It takes practice but if you follow the above guidelines, you’re good to go!
Inside The Game 