FIFA - The Ugly Game : En kvantitativ innehållsanalys av FIFA:s kommunikation på Twitter under korruptionsskandalen 2015.

Sammanfattning: This study examines @FIFAmedia’s communication on Twitter, other users’ reactions to FIFA’s framing in their tweets, and on whether FIFA’s income from brand licensing was affected by the corruption scandal from 2015. By measuring FIFA’s framing and the reactions to it, a concrete comparison with FIFA's brand capital is enabled to provide further understanding of the impact the scandal had on the brand. All research questions are using a quantitative content analysis. The first two research questions are using Twitter and a sample period consisting of the periods: before, during and after the scandal. For the third research question FIFA's financial reports between the years 2013-2018 were interpreted to line up the numbers against each other to see if FIFA’s revenues from brand licensing have increased or decreased due to the scandal. The Framing Theory is used to answer the two first research questions about FIFA’s and Twitter users’ portrayal, whilst the Theory on Brand Equity is used to answer the third research question about FIFA’s brand equity. Previous research examines FIFA’s communication and Twitter users’ reactions to the tweets separately, but not in relation to each other. The result showed that FIFA communicates mostly about internal organizational activities and men’s football. The organisation often tweets with a link to its official website to update the followers on more information regarding their tweets. The result of other users' reaction to FIFA's framing in tweets was shown to be strongest after the corruption scandal was discovered. During this period, it is mainly private individuals who express negative thoughts towards FIFA’s tweets, as well as about FIFA as an organization. Finally, the results show that the scandal had an impact on FIFA's brand capital from licensing, where revenues increased vastly after the corruption scandal occurred, from the years 2016-2018. This result may be due to the fact that partners of FIFA sign multi-year contracts where a lot of money is involved, and that the financial capital between the partners is extremely important for the future of the organisations.