‘Image’ leveraging and sports mega-events: Germany and the 2006 FIFA World Cup

Abstract

The broader setting for this research is the increase in willingness of governments of all political hues to stage sports mega-events. The paper starts from the observation that many states have and do instrumentalise sport to promote their country's image or ‘brand’ and attempt to gain prestige. This paper argues that Germany employed a deliberate leveraging strategy to improve their nation's (poor) image abroad. How did Germany do this? This study focuses on three aspects that were central to Germany's leveraging tactics: a series of long-term, carefully co-ordinated campaigns; the focus on a ‘fan-centred’ approach to the organisation of the event and the creation of a ‘feelgood factor’ around the tournament. More broadly, the article seeks to contribute to the nascent literature on leveraging sports mega-events by employing Chalip's 2004 model of leveraging legacies as an organising principle and focusing on strategies to improve a nation's image used by Germany.

Keywords:

• Leveraging legacies from sports mega-events
• ‘image’ leveraging
• Germany's image abroad
• sport and tourism

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their comprehensive, useful and insightful feedback.

Notes

There are a number of terms similar and relating to ‘international prestige’. The broadest concept is that of a nation's ‘public diplomacy’ (i.e. relations with external states, both formal and informal). States tend to seek to project a positive ‘image’ of themselves internationally; for the purpose of this paper ‘international prestige’ ought to be understood as both the reputation of a country and its image abroad – it is this that states seek to enhance with the hope of improving trade, in-coming tourism and influence in international affairs.

See Time online ‘Sports as Diplomacy: How Small Gulf Countries Use Big Sports to Gain Global Influence’, available at http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2080062,00.html (accessed 9 February 2012).

This short section on ‘soft power’ relies heavily on Grix and Houlihan (2012) ‘Sports mega-events as part of a nation's soft power strategy’, unpublished manuscript; Justin Morris lists the English language, Greenwich Mean Time, the ‘Westminster Model’ of government, English Law and the BBC World Service among other ‘soft power’ assets belonging to Britain (see Morris, 2011, pp. 332–333).

Ironically, perhaps, the current paper has benefitted from a research grant from the German Academic Exchange Programme for fieldwork in Berlin in the summer of 2011. Part of this programme is to improve Germany's image in the world by promoting the nation's language, culture and academic exchange.

The word ‘idea’ has a resonance abroad and it is a concept under which many things can be subsumed (Interview with Ariane Derks).

See www.du-bist-deutschland.de. The original campaign, started in 2005, has now changed its focus towards a ‘Child Friendly’ society.

Barcelona is generally cited in the literature as an Olympics that was successful for the host (Horne & Manzenreiter, 2006, p. 9).