Institute of International Relations, NGO

The Impact of a Sports Mega-Event on the International Image of a Country: the Case of
Poland Hosting UEFA Euro 2012
Author(s): AGATA DEMBEK and RENATA WŁOCH
Source: Perspectives, Vol. 22, No. 1 (2014), pp. 33-47
Published by: Institute of International Relations, NGO
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/24624580
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 33 ► 47
The Impact of a Sports
Mega-Event on the
International Image
of a Country: the Case
of Poland Hosting UEFA
Euro 2012

AGATA DEMBEK AND RENATA WtOCH

Abstract: The article examines the efficacy of the efforts to promote a country through its hosting

of a sports mega-event. It presents a preliminary analysis of the impact that Poland's

hosting of UEFA Euro 2012 had on the perception of Poland in the eyes of the foreign

press. The results show that in spite of the underdeveloped branding strategy and sev

eral promotional mishaps at the beginning of the tournament, Poland has benefited con

siderably from organizing the event. A content analysis of press reports gathered around

the world by Polish embassies proves that the direct experience of the visitors of the

event, especially the journalists accredited at the championship, may have contributed

to changing the stereotypical image of Poland as a country of traditionalistic, fervently

Catholic farmers into an image of Poland as a quickly developing, aspiring and modern

European country.

Key words: international image of Poland, sports mega-event, UEFA Euro 2012, nation branding

INTRODUCTION
For some time now, students of international relations and related disciplines who
are interested in the activities and evolution of the institution of the nation-state have

been pointing out that in the context of a global capitalist economy driven by virtual
financial flows, a significant transformation of the means of conducting the state's
external policy has taken place. Nowadays, states must wield not only 'hard' military
or economic power, but also the 'soft' power of attractiveness and influence (Nye,
2004). They must compete not only for recognition and regard on the part of other
states, but also for the attention of potential investors, tourists, consumers of the
goods and services they produce and export, and the groups of potential immi
grants they wish to attract. This transformation has been described by the recently

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AGATA DEMBEK AND RENATA WtOCH

I developed concepts of the competitive identity of a state (based on the attractive

| ness of its exports, politics, culture, tourism, inhabitants and investment opportuni
I ties) and country/nation branding (Anholt, 2007; Covers-Co, 2009), which are
[ conceptually akin to but not identical with the traditional idea of public diplomacy
\ (Szondy, 2008). The most simplified version of these concepts suggests that the
! state should be considered as yet another type of product with its own unique brand
i that should be accentuated and upheld by visual communication (e.g. a logo) and,
I more generally, by a complex marketing strategy. It must be duly noted that notable
I theorists and researchers of the emerging field of country/nation/city/place/des
| tination branding are making every effort to argue that the process of country image
j management is not an easy task and that the image of a country abroad is usually
I anchored in long-lived stereotypes, cliches, history and traditions, and, as such, it is
j not easily or readily malleable (Anholt, 2007; Dinnie, 2009; Covers-Go, 2009;
I Kotler-Gertner, 2002).
For quite understandable reasons, the idea that it may be possible to change the
; image of a country seems more alluring for those countries whose image is some
! how negative or virtually non-existent in the eyes and minds of the international au
| dience. The issue of international recognizability and attractiveness has gained
I particular importance for the relative 'newcomers' to international politics, such as
I Poland. Poland won its independence from the USSR in 1989; earlier its interna
! tional image crudely came down to its being a country behind the Iron Curtain. The
j first 15 years of its autonomic foreign policy were committed to leading the coun
| try to join the Western European political structures (it joined NATO in 1999 and the
I EU in 2004). Meanwhile, it promptly dawned on the government to engage in the
| task of promoting Poland in a rapidly globalizing environment. As will be described
! below, similarly to the nation branding undertakings of other post-communist coun
| tries, those efforts have not always been coherent or fully effective, which was duly
| confirmed by a variety of international ranking lists of country attractiveness
| (Surowiec, 2012).
These variable and modest promotional successes were one of the reasons why
| the following occurred: when at the turn of 2004 the Ukrainian Football Association
| made its Polish counterpart the offer of a joint bid for organizing UEFA Euro 2012,
I the Polish government embraced the opportunity enthusiastically and provided all
S the guarantees of the financially burdensome state for the UEFA. There is a
! widespread belief among the decision-makers of the states which are willing to host
j sports mega-events that such undertakings will significantly contribute to enhancing
| the state's international image. They count on the idea that hosting such events will
| confirm or improve their country's status and image on the international arena, or
| see it as an opportunity to signal their political and economic potential. Organizing
| or hosting a sports mega-event has always been considered a prestigious activity -

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 THE IMPACT OF A SPORTS MEGA-EVENT

it may be appropriate to recall the international political friction concerning the or- ;
ganization of the first FIFA Mundial in 1930, which was finally awarded to Uruguay I
- but in the era of globalization, as it seems, the stakes got higher. Sports mega- |
events offer a rare opportunity to present the state's image in the global media; in ;
other words, they provide international visibility (Cornellissen, 2007: 242; I
Rein-Shields, 2006). UEFA Euro is one of the most prestigious and well known global j
mega-events, a marketing spotlight not only for companies that want to sell their j
products by linking their brands with the UEFA's Euro brand, but also for host states j
(Horne-Manzereiter, 2006). It provides a 'showcase effect' (Hiller, 1989:119) - tele- !
vision exposure of the locality. In 2008, the European Championship had a TV au- |
dience of over 1 billion, with 150 million people watching every game (on average), j
This media exposure was particularly important for Poland - a country with a virtual |
lack of an international image.
This paper describes the international image of Poland before the 2012 Cham- j
pionship and the slow emergence of the country's branding strategy (Surowiec, j
2012). In this context, it then presents the conclusions drawn from the most fun- j
damental findings of a qualitative analysis of media reports concerning the impact !
of UEFA Euro 2012 on the image of Poland; it must be noted that the analysis fo- |
cuses on the changed attitudes of foreign journalists, who are treated here as opin- |
ion-leaders who guard important communication channels. The frequency of the I
media appearances of individual topics relating to the Championship shows that |
special attention was paid to the political and historical conditions of Poland's sit- |
uation as well as to organizational, promotional and economic issues. During the |
three weeks of the Championship, Poland became a key subject of interest to the I
international media, which has given the country a chance to present itself from |
many different angles. The observed change in the opinions expressed by the for- ]
eign press may be regarded as an anticipation of a more general change in the |
image of Poland abroad.

POLAND'S INTERNATIONAL IMAGE BEFORE

UEFA EURO 2012: DIFFERENT SHADES OF GREY
The eagerness of the Polish authorities to combine their promotional activities with j
the third most popular sports mega-event in the world was certainly strengthened |
by the results of a research on the international image of Poland and Poles, which |
had been commissioned by various think-tanks and research and state agencies (the |
Institute of Public Affairs, the Institute of the Polish Brand, the Ministry of Economy,
PL.2012) in the previous years. Here we will briefly summarize its results while fo- |
cusing on the two most recent studies.
In most of the cases of the research, the given country's opinion about Poland ]
was neutral, but in some countries negative attitudes towards it prevailed. When

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AGATA DEMBEK AND RENATA WtOCH

I asked about what kind of qualities they spontaneously connect with Poland, Euro
| peans from other countries described it as a country cherishing tradition that is a
: little backward, immersed in its difficult history, deeply religious (and with an ex
| cessive influence of the Catholic Church) and agricultural (TNS OBOP, 2010). In an
; other detailed study, the positive and neutral connotations of Poland in most of the
| researched countries included the following: human capital (a cheap but well-ed
! ucated and diligent labour force); food; history (especially World War II); a former
| communist country; a big country with a large market; agriculture, or an agricultural
| country; the Polish cities (esp. in the UK and Ireland); vodka and alcohol; culture,
| tourism and holidays; the Solidarity movement and Lech Walesa (esp. in the USA);
! religiousness, Catholicism and John Paul II. The negative connotations included
| the following: nationalism; conservatism; an exaggerated Catholicism; a cold, sad,
! gloomy and boring country which should be pitied; thefts, thieves and corruption
| (esp. in Germany); a victim of a tough history; bad roads; Polish jokes; pirated prod
| ucts and fakes; a far-away country that is not familiar and somehow closed to the
| external world (Ministry of Economy, 2011 ). It is additionally worth noting that the
| Europeans generally have a better opinion of Poles than of Poland as such: they
| are perceived as hard-working, willing to cope with adversities, creative and hos
j pitable, though they are also seen as cunning and too conservative. Other nation
| alities' direct contacts with Poles who are or were travelling and/or working abroad
| are probably the main reason for the accelerated improvement of their interna
i tional image.
Yet the most important - and uniform - general conclusion drawn from the vari
| ety of studies conducted was as follows: the key problem of Poland is not a bad or
! negative international image, but rather the lack of an international image. Most Eu
| ropeans have a very meagre knowledge about Poland, if they have any knowledge
j of it at all. Admittedly, over half of the respondents in the Czech Republic, Ukraine,
I Russia, and Germany knew something about Poland, but at the same time 82% of
! the Dutch, 72% of the British and 62% of the French know nothing or very little
i about the country (TNS OBOP, 2010). Information about Poland in foreign media
| is scarce and it usually concentrates on politics and current affairs. The recognition
| of Polish products, services and investment opportunities on the foreign markets is
low, and the foreign general public does not receive much information about the Pol
I ish economic success. Also, the Polish economy is not perceived as competitive
j (Ministry of Economy, 2011 ).
This low profile of Poland was further confirmed in international ranking lists of
| country brands. In 2010, Poland took the 26th place on the list of 50 countries in the
I Anholt-Roper Nation Brand Index. In the 2011 Country Brand Index (which evalu
] ates the strength, uniqueness and differentiation of a country brand in comparison
! with the brands of other countries) Poland - a country of 38 million, and an EU and

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 THE IMPACT OF A SPORTS MEGA-EVENT

OECD member - took the 79th place out of 113 countries, and in the subgroup of
the 33 European countries it was only in the 29th place (overtaking only Russia, Ser
bia, Romania and Ukraine).
The growing awareness of both the low profile of the Polish international image
and the importance of building a competitive identity for it had inspired Polish in
stitutions, and not only the governmental ones, to undertake numerous promotional
activities. For a long time, such attempts were not very successful, and they were also
poorly coordinated (NIK [Supreme Audit Office], 2011 ).
At the beginning of the 2000s there was an attempt to build a coherent com
munication for Poland with the help of the British branding guru Wally Olins. A
group of experts from the Institute of the Polish Brand, working under his super
vision and drawing from their own research on the Polish image abroad, proposed
that the underpinning marketing line for Poland should be 'creative tension' (In
stitute of the Polish Brand, 2004). In the business lingo it may mean 'a situation
where disagreement or discord ultimately gives rise to better ideas or outcomes'.
The term was to accentuate the fact that Poles are very traditional and yet quite
modern at the same time; they value religion, but also cherish liberty; they are at
the crossroads of the East and the West; they are idealists who can think prag
matically. The idea was never fully implemented: after the rightist party Prawo i
Sprawiedliwos'c's electoral victory in 2005, Olins started to complain of the new
government policy, which he perceived as nationalist and intolerant. In 2007, he
declared that '[a]t the moment there are far too many negative issues around them
[i.e. PiS leaders]. In the present situation there is not a lot we can do to help
Poland' (Telegraph, 2007). Nevertheless, the government used the Institute's ex
pertise to create the tourism marketing strategy for 2008-2015 and the Commu
nication Strategy for the British, German and French markets (Institute of the Polish
Brand, 2008). It may be safely claimed that Poland has not worked out a coherent
nation branding strategy yet. Moreover, among the decision-makers there is no
clarity in their use of concepts such as branding, promotion or communication
strategy.
As of now, there are still a few dozen governmental and non-governmental insti
tutions working on the international image of Poland. To name but a few, the Min
istry of Foreign Affairs is responsible for the general image of Poland; the Ministry
of Economy is responsible for the economic promotion of the country; the Polish
Agency of Information and Foreign Investment is responsible for its foreign invest
ments; and the Polish Tourism Organization is naturally responsible for tourism. A
cultural governmental agency - similar to the British Council and the Goethe Insti
tute - called the Institute of Adam Mickiewicz conducts various programs and ini
tiatives promoting Polish culture abroad. The diversity of those institutions has
unfortunately resulted in a lack of coherent communication. The Ministry of Foreign

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AGATA DEMBEK AND RENATA WtOCH

Affairs' Framework Strategy of Promotion, which was announced in 2009, enumer

ated, as a point of departure for future undertakings, some critical points in the pro
motional activities to date: the lack of cohesiveness and coordination of the

promotion; the lack of effective governmental support; the lack of legal, organiza
tional and financial instruments; the lack of methodology; and the lack of a clear
competence division.
One of the ideas of the new Strategy was to accentuate the Polish presence
during diverse cultural, economic and business mega-events, which were to be
treated as 'promotional anchors' and perfect opportunities to influence targeted
audiences; these efforts, along with the preparations for the Polish EU presi
dency, were to be coordinated by the Department of Public and Cultural Diplo
macy. In 2010, Poland successfully participated in the EXPO in Shanghai, and in
March 2011 it presented its new and - according to expert opinions - quite in
novative promotional campaign (Polska1 - Move Your Imagination) during ITB
Berlin (Florek-Jankowska, 2012). Another such 'promotional anchor' was to be
the UEFA Euro 2012 tournament. As has already been mentioned, for the Polish
authorities the rationale for hosting the Championship was manifold. It was per
ceived as a for unique chance for a quickened infrastructural modernization, an
opportunity for pulling its Ukrainian co-host closer to Europe, an occasion for
gaining economically, and, naturally, an opportunity to advance Poland's image
before the eyes of the international public. Surprisingly enough, PL.2012, the
governmental agency responsible for the preparation process, which had pre
pared the research diagnosis for the promotional activities connected with the
Euro and worked out the promotional strategy, did not implement the project,
probably due to the lack of financing. Promotional activities connected with the
Euro were composed into the overall promotional campaign 'Move Your Imag
ination', and it focused on the Polish cities and regions2. Additionally, each of the
host cities - Gdansk, Poznan, Warsaw and Wroclaw - carried out its own pro
motional campaign.
To sum it up, the Polish institutions did not manage to prepare a sufficiently co
herent promotional offensive in the international media that would be targeted at di
verse international audiences before the Championship. The hopes for the
promotion were based on a strategy of influencing the people who would visit
Poland during the Championship (especially journalists) and get to know the coun
try and its inhabitants - as a result of this influence, they would change their previ
ous opinions of Poland. As the official website of PL.2012 states, 'Each person visiting
Poland during UEFA EURO 2012™ should leave our country with an impression that
Poland is a normal European country, where cool and open people live'. This is why
visitors to the country were greeted with a poster campaign with the catchword
'Feel like at home'. The modesty of this above cited goal proves - on the one hand

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 THE IMPACT OF A SPORTS MEGA-EVENT

- the authorities' awareness of the low profile of Poland's international image, and |
- on the other hand - the belief in its inadequacy.

THE METHODOLOGY OF THE RESEARCH

The presented examination of the impact of UEFA Euro 2012 on the Polish inter
national image is illustrated by an analysis of 25 bulletins of the Polish Ministry of
Foreign Affairs prepared between June 6th and July 7th in 2012 and based on 800 ]
press notes from over 20 countries. The bulletins were prepared for the interna
use of the Polish administration; they presented and summed up the information
concerning Poland and EURO 2012 as it appeared in the local press. They were
based on both news press notes and journalistic articles. It must be noted that th
methodological adequacy of the research material had its inherent limitations
The reports were of diverse character (they differed in length and depth) and
therefore could not be treated as a uniform research sample and the basis of a
more consistent quantitative analysis. Nevertheless, the researchers assumed tha
the material provided by the Ministry was unique in terms of its scope and diver- j
sity and that therefore it may be treated as a handy illustrative basis for the pre- |
liminary analysis of the changes in the international image of Poland, even though ]
the subject will need further elaboration based on a more coherent research sam
pie. Additionally, the goals of the study focused on the international perception of j
Poland's image in general rather than on a discourse analysis. The embassy pres
reports were analysed qualitatively in order to identify the most often elaborated !
themes and issues: the vast majority of the reports dwelled on the difference be
tween the expected and the experienced outlook of Poland, and the behaviour of
the football fans.

LAPSING INTO STEREOTYPES?

As presented above, for the Polish authorities UEFA Euro 2012 was a once-in-a-life-
time opportunity to advertise their country to the world. Yet even before the open
ing of the Championship their hopes suffered several serious strokes. The fir
major blow was triggered by the co-hosting Ukraine, which was then undergoi
its gravest political crisis since the Orange Revolution. The imprisonment of i
former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko evoked an outrage among the Europe
political elite and commentators, who started to denounce the lack of democra
and transparency in Ukraine. Several of the top European politicians declared th
they would not condone the situation by attending the games. The affair thus stole
some of the spotlight from Poland as most of the attention of the European media
was focused on Ukraine. There was also a risk that some of the odium would fa
down on the neighbouring Poland, which, despite the much more advanced an
sturdy state of its democracy and civil society, would often be lumped togeth

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AGATA DEMBEK AND RENATA WtOCH

with other post-Communist East European countries. Yet surprisingly enough, the
majority of the foreign media reports during the Championship strictly distin
guished between Ukraine and Poland to the advantage of the latter. They elabo
rated on Poland's modernizing advancement, which stood in contrast to the
situation of the Eastern neighbour, and Poland was perceived as a fully European,
developed and dynamic country. A fly in the ointment worth underlining, though,
is that the two countries did not succeed in the task of co-organizing the event as
a common one. When the preparation, atmosphere and organizational quality of
the Championship were evaluated by foreign journalists, they mostly evaluated
Poland and Ukraine separately.
Another 'PR car crash' was caused by the BBC documentary titled Stadiums of
Hate, which aired on 3 June, just before the start of the Championship. It described
Poland and Ukraine as countries penetrated by racism and anti-Semitism. In the
documentary, examples of racist football hooliganism were commented on by Sol
Campbell, a former British footballer: 'I know it was like this in England at one stage
[just a little over 20 years ago, in fact] but in the 21st century, this is on a completely
different level.' He went to say that 'the tournament should never have been given
to these countries' and advised British football fans not to go there as there was a
danger that they 'might come back in a coffin'. The film became a reference point
for all the narratives about the Championship: even if it was criticized and its the
ses were falsified, they were first described and discussed. The media narratives
about the problem of the racist and xenophobic behaviour of football fans at the
stadiums and in the Fan Zones during the tournament referred to the problem of
racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism in the Polish society as such. Poland was
portrayed as a country specifically ridden with such problems, especially in the UK
and in the non-European countries, particularly in South Africa, Malaysia, Indone
sia and India. However, at the end of the Championship foreign media began to ver
ify the racist image of Poland, stressing that the worries were much exaggerated or
not confirmed at all, and that according to the first-hand experience of the foreign
journalists, football fans, coaches, footballers and VIPs, Poland has no more prob
lems with racist football hooligans than most other countries. Media reports widely
elaborated on the event prepared by English fans in Donetsk (Ukraine) on June
19th, which was a critical answer to Campbell's statement. By this gesture, the fans
stressed that their personal experience of the Championship's atmosphere had
been very positive, and that it was actually unlike the BBC documentary's warn
ings. International media also noted the announcements of the English Football As
sociation's complaint against the BBC for airing Stadiums of Hate. According to
the FA, the airing of the misleadingly alarming documentary just before the Cham
pionship had been a reason for the low attendance of English fans during the games
in Poland and Ukraine.

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 THE IMPACT OF A SPORTS MEGA-EVENT

The third promotional blow was created by the fights that erupted in Warsaw on
12 June - on the day of the game between Poland and Russia - between Polish and
Russian football fans. As a result, more than 180 people were arrested and the events
were widely commented on in the international media. From 12 June, a lion's share
of the media narrations was devoted to the descriptions and explanations of the
clashes. Interestingly, foreign journalists readily inscribed them in the logic of the
historic hate between the two nations, which was rooted in the Tsarist era and deep
ened in the period of the harsh Soviet domination after 1945. The evaluation of the
Warsaw events was determined by geopolitical predilections. The commentaries of
the Russian media usually blamed the Polish side for providing inadequate security
measures. One of the Russian newspapers wrote that the fights were 'a kind of geno
cide'3; another wrote about the hostile atmosphere surrounding the Russians at the
stadiums, 'a foul campaign of hate carried by the Polish media towards the Russians'
and 'the Polish sport nationalism'. The Belarusian press reminded the Polish that the
'Red Army liberated Poland from the Teutonic aggression'. Also the Bulgarian,
Kazakh and Iranian media, along with the Lithuanian media, blamed the Polish side
for the conflicts. But on the other hand, the German press, for example, much more
often emphasized the provocative character of the march organized in Warsaw by
the Russian football fans and the banners on the stadiums that reminded one of the

Polish bashing in Russia in the 17th century. In many of the commentaries the tense
Polish-Russian relations were compared to the pragmatic and friendly Polish-Ger
man relations, in which the dramatic history between the two nations has been suc
cessfully overcome. It is also worth underlining that the majority of the reports
admitted that the atmosphere of threat and anxiety created in the media before the
Poland-Russia game had been significantly exaggerated. Furthermore, the Polish po
lice and security forces were praised for their efficiency and professionalism in han
dling the conflicts. Commentaries argued that similarly to the case of the racism at
the stadiums, in this case, the anticipated level of threats was much higher than the
actual level of threats.

Apart from the narratives connected to the three aforementioned issues, the qual
itative analysis showed that generally the media in most countries, especially at the
beginning of June, described the events during the tournament and the presentation
of the Polish host according to the functioning stereotypes about Poland, as identi
fied in the research concerning its international image. One of the common themes
was the historic narration. Quite often journalists from countries such as Greece,
Thailand, Germany, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Luxemburg, India, Kenya, Korea, Turkey
or Lithuania, to name but a few, accentuated that 'EURO is a lesson of the Polish his
tory'. The press notes from the host cities were quite similar in character: Warsaw was
described through the prism of the painful WWII history, the Warsaw Uprising and
the catastrophic destruction of the city; Gdansk, Wroclaw, Poznan and Krakow

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AGATA DEMBEK AND RENATA WtOCH

i (which was not a host city, but a training centre for the English team) were described
; as cities with a multifaceted and multicultural past. At the same time, the quite often
I sorrowful past was contrasted to the modern present. Poland was shown as a cou
| try with a rich tradition and a complicated history, but also as a quickly developing
I entity. It is worth noting that the more distant the country that commented on Poland
I was, the more simplified the media narratives of Poland were. For example, in Japan
; Poland and Ukraine were described as countries that are dazzled by their past mi
! eries and their feeling of having suffered injustices in the past. Also, in the interna
| tional media, plenty of attention was given to the visits of the football teams - not
i surprisingly, particularly to the visit of the German team - to the Auschwitz-Birkenau
I camp. This gesture was particularly important for the Polish authorities, as the camps
i are sometimes incorrectly referred to by the international media as 'the Polish con
i centration/death camps' - which is harmful to the Polish international image.
Another common theme that was readily taken up by the foreign media was the
i 'uncommon' religiousness of the Polish society. Poland was presented as a deeply
I Catholic country, especially in Austria (Poland as a nation of 'John Paul II fans'), the
I Czech Republic (a Czech commentator stated that Polish fans would seek solace in
I churches after the defeat of their team) and Ireland (the idea that the Irish share a
I community of religion with the Poles). Journalists wrote about the activities under
| taken by the Catholic Church during the Championship, such as the masses held
j for foreign football fans in the host cities, the promotional action that was intended
I to attract potential future priests and used the slogan 'Join God's team', and the
[ confession of one of the Church dignitaries that he had prayed for the Polish goalie.
All in all, the analysis of the foreign media reports concerning UEFA Euro 2012 in
! Poland proves that the task of modifying a country's international image is always a
| difficult one. In this case, the media readily lapsed into using sets of already existing
| stereotypes, particularly when faced with events that easily fitted them, such as the
| Polish-Russian brawls on 12 June, or when sensitized, even if to a large extent falsely,
| to phenomena such as racism and anti-Semitism. Probably because of this 'stere
| typical filter' through which Poland was seen by foreign journalists especially at the
j beginning of the Championship, the tone of the commentaries has been distinctly
| changing throughout the duration of the tournament. Despite all the presuppos
| tions described above, UEFA Euro 2012 has shown Poland to the world from quit
| a different angle.

| A CHAMPIONSHIP OF SURPRISES
i As noted above, the stereotypical image of Poland and the Polish society was the
I starting point for most of the press comments. But another strong pattern identi
I fied within the qualitative analysis of the media reports was an element of aston
[ ishment. To the foreign journalists' surprise, Poland proved to be a welcoming,

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 THE IMPACT OF A SPORTS MEGA-EVENT

well-organized and safe place inhabited by open and friendly people. The atmo
sphere of surprise in the analysed texts had been steadily increasing throughout
the Championship's duration - the more time foreign journalists spent in Poland
and the more experiences they gathered, the more explicitly they verified their ini
tial point of view.
The atmosphere of the event was described as created above all by emotions,
particularly by enthusiasm and hospitality. Journalists, players and fans almost unan
imously emphasized the welcoming Polish approach towards the visitors. The Pol
ish volunteers were depicted as cordial and professional, and the Polish people as
open and helpful. The friendly and joyful atmosphere was noted even by the Russian
media, which generally focused on the conflicts between the Polish and Russian
fans and critically evaluated the organizational aspects of the tournament. Especially
after the Polish team dropped out of the tournament, the lasting enthusiasm of the
Poles was depicted as unusual. The Czech press, for instance, was pleasantly sur
prised by the support given by Polish fans to the team that had eliminated their play
ers from the competition. Also, the warm welcome for the German team was
frequently underlined and recognized as a proof of the two countries overcoming
their historical antagonisms.
The element of surprise was also present in the reports on the organizational as
pect of UEFA Euro 2012. It was particularly significant as the anticipations had not
been positive: the foreign press had not really believed in Poland's ability to deal
with the major organizational challenge ('there is no point in expecting much from
the host that is not a G8 member'). However, the final evaluation revealed that the

standards for organizing Euro 2012 were at least equally high as those for previous
similar events. The main organizational successes underlined by the journalists were
the following: the work of the police and municipal services, the preparation of ac
commodation centres for the teams and guests, and - above all - the quality of the
newly built Polish stadiums. From the perspective of Poland's international image, it
is worth emphasizing the tone of surprise in reports regarding the order and tidiness
of Polish cities. Apparently, the level of expectations in this area was relatively low
before the Championship.
From the beginning of June, one of the dominant topics in foreign media reports
on the games was the subject of safety and public order during the event. The threat
of hooligan riots, the problem of racism and the anticipated poor preparation of the
police and municipal services were widely discussed by the foreign press. This tone
of anxiety, however, subsided after the much dreaded game between Poland and
Russia, when it appeared that the security forces stood up to the challenge. The
analysis shows that from this moment on, the character of the reports significantly
changed. For instance, the American and Canadian media admitted that the previ
ous estimation of the level of the threats had been considerably exaggerated. In the

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AGATA DEMBEK AND RENATA WtOCH

I summarizing media reports at the end of the month, the Championship was evalu
| ated as safe and calm.
The majority of the summarizing reports stressed the organizational and promo
| tional success of Poland and argued that Poland's hosting of the UEFA Euro 2012
| event would be an important impulse for the growth of the business and touristic ex
j change between Poland and other countries. At the end of the day, foreign jour
[ nalists evaluated Poland as a modern and 'serious' European country, and its
| stereotypical image has gradually weakened in their eyes over the course of the
I Championship's duration.

I DIRECT EXPERIENCE AS A PROMOTIONAL

STRATEGY
I One of the most interesting patterns identified in the conducted analysis was t
! positive relation between visiting Poland in person and the tone of the opinions pro
| fessed in the media. The level of sympathy and enthusiasm for Poland was sign
j cantly higher in the comments and opinions of those journalists who actually visite
| Poland during the Championship. Also the strength of the 'surprise effect' was
creased in those cases. This can be explained by a basic psychological mechanis
- a direct experience provokes more intense affective reactions than an indirect on
! (Cialdini-Petty-Cacioppo, 1981 ). But the fact that the experiences described in the
| analysed media reports were mostly positive can be considered as an importan
j case in projecting the Poland brand's strategy.
Not surprisingly, the journalists' accounts from their trips to Poland were also
much more detailed and filled with different examples. Polish cities were described
as both unexpectedly modern and peculiarly calm and diverse. The foreign opti
had also allowed them to enumerate some characteristics of the Polish people other
| than their stereotypical traditional hospitality and religiousness. The Poles have bee
| described as very open and caring but also dynamic and tolerant, and the Polis
| football fans were described as fun-loving people who were willing to cheer on the
| teams that had defeated their national football representation. These examples show
| the strength of the direct personal experience as a tool for changing the petrified
image of Poland that was built on an indirect and mostly historical basis (Govern-Go,
| 2009).

CONCLUSIONS
; The case of Poland may be treated as exemplary by other countries which
| consider hosting a sports mega-event and using it as a promotional vehicle
| Poland's preparation for the Championship demanded a tremendous effort in te
| of financing and organization: estimates state that Poland invested approxim
j € 24 billion in sports facilities and infrastructure. Additionally, the Polish author

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 THE IMPACT OF A SPORTS MEGA-EVENT

had to negotiate the sovereignty of the state by granting the powerful organizer
UEFA a series of commercial and intellectual property rights, fiscal privileges and
guarantees. Like all other hosts of sports mega-events, Poland cherished high hopes
as to the political, economic and social revenues from the event. Yet, as John Home
observed, megaprojects seem to be a kind of a 'fantasy world of underestimated
costs, overestimated revenues, underestimated environmental impacts and over-val
ued economic development effects' (2007: 86). The main question remains as to
whether there are reasons to believe that Poland will benefit from UEFA Euro 2012

in terms of its international image.

Polish authorities assumed that the sheer presence of their country in the inter
national media would enhance its visibility and contribute to changing its image. It
may be safely concluded that this aim has been achieved to a reasonable extent: it
is estimated that Euro 2012, jointly with the qualification round, had an audience of
1.1 billion viewers via 55 thousand hours of TV transmission in 220 countries around

the world. Poland's name was frequently mentioned in the broadcasts, and it is not
to be ignored that it was connoted with the powerful brand of UEFA and, in general,
with all the strong emotions connected with football.
In reference to the other goal, it is worth reminding ourselves that on the eve of
the Championship Poland could not boast of having a mature and well-prepared
promotional campaign or a well thought out branding strategy. Infrastructural prepa
rations consumed most of the budget to the detriment of promotional issues. As a
result, the promotional campaign was limited in scope and range (it was limited
mainly to the three countries identified as crucial for the Polish tourist sector, that is,
France, Germany and the UK), and the promotional insight was based on the idea
of changing the image of Poland through personal experiences and reports of visi
tors, particularly those of the journalists accredited at the event. The first part of the
analysis of the press reports showed that in their writing about Poland the journal
ists readily employed long-existing, vague and historically conditioned stereotypes.
Thus, it is important that the potential host countries for megaevents prepare a de
tailed diagnosis of their current international image, so that the authorities could
evade or control potential promotional crises (such as the racism issue in the case
of Poland) and be ready to take countermeasures against them. Yet the second part
of the analysis showed how the direct experience of the so-called opinion leaders -
In this case, the journalists - might potentially lead to a change in the established
image of a country. Undoubtedly, the 'effect of surprise', which is based on a clash
between expectations and reality, may be counted as one of the most important
benefits that Poland drew from organizing the Championship. Poland's paying at
tention to - and earmarking money for - the soft, social and logistical aspects of
the sports mega-event that hugely enhanced the comfort of the visitors (such as the
quality of the volunteering and the professional support for the journalists) instead

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AGATA DEMBEK AND RENATA WtOCH

of investing massively in a costly promotional campaign has apparently been a good

strategy.

ENDNOTES
1 The term is Polska, not Poland, as Poland is often confused with Holland. This was another creative

of Wally Olins.

2 The well-received promotional spots of the Move Your Imagination campaign may be watch

YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/polandtravel?v=jXPeofkW-Pw&lr=1.

3 All the quotes that are not specifically identified come from the analyzed media contents provid
the Polish embassies.

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