Al Wasl’s global media coverage up by 1,600%

Al Wasl Club and Football Company has received unrivalled media attention recently, according to statistics compiled by Cicero & Bernay Public Relations and Meltwater media monitoring agency; confirming that the acquisition of Diego Maradona as head coach has been a very strategic and successful move.

By Kt Report

Published: Sun 3 Jun 2012, 11:54 AM

Last updated: Tue 7 Apr 2015, 1:55 PM

His signing has garnered international media attention for Al Wasl, which reflected equally as well on a national and regional level, where the number of reports released on the internet exceeded 15,600 between May 2011 and May 2012, which is the equivalent of 1,300 monthly reports. Their financial value reached almost Dh270 million, and as added significance, more than 50 per cent of the reports mentioned Dubai and the UAE in their reports.

These figures are remarkable when compared with the pre-Maradona phase (September 2010 - April 2011) where Al Wasl’s name was mentioned in approximately 80 reports per month on the international internet portals - the increase is an astonishing 1600 per cent.

Al Wasl and Maradona news has been circulated all over the world; that includes more than 45 countries across all continents, most significantly the United States, Argentina, Germany, Mexico, Australia and the United Kingdom.

It is interesting to note that websites had the largest share of media promotion. More than 2,790 internet media news sites — belonging to media giants such as CNN, BBC, Le Figaro, the Gazzetta dello Sport, Al Jazeera, Sky Sport, Telegraph and Guardian, to name a few — followed the developments of the club.

As for local (UAE) and regional (GCC + MENA) print media coverage, starting from April 2011 to the present, the number of articles printed that have mentioned Al Wasl reached 1,840. Its value is estimated to be worth almost Dh63 million, which makes the total media coverage around the world worth almost Dh333 million.