Champions League typo yields PR win for Malmö
An embarrassing spelling mistake on supporter scarves created ahead of Malmö FF's match against Scotland's Glasgow Rangers on Wednesday has turned into a public relations bonanza for the Swedish football club.
In anticipation of historic home match, which saw Malmö tie Rangers to advance to the next round of the Champions League tournament, the team decided to print up 300 special edition scarves to distribute to supporters.
But there was one problem: the scarves has misspelled “Champions League” – and the error was only discovered merely a day before kickoff.
"We decided to make the scarf in a 'Treskilling Yellow' version," joked Malmö FF's communications director Per Welinder to the Expressen daily, referring to the well-known Swedish stamp with a typo that holds the world-record auction price for a single postage stamp.
Indeed, Malmö's grade-school spelling blunder may end up helping the scarves – and the club – achieve similar levels of fame.
The initial embarrassment has been turned into a PR success story, as newspapers from all across the country have written about the fiasco.
In addition, long queues of fans looking to buy the unique scarf have sinced formed in Malmö FF's shop.
"When did you last see a scarf becoming a news item on the TT news agency? Our scarf was in the papers throughout the country, all the way up to papers in northern Västerbotten. I can't call this anything but a total success, from a PR perspective," said Per Welinder to newspaper Dagens Media.
"We're extremely pleased, the scarf is sold out and has become a great deal for us. The scarf has become somewhat legendary, and everyone wants to talk about it."
After beating out Glasgow Rangers with 2-1 in Wednesday's game, Malmö FF will now be playing in the final qualifying round to Champions League.
On Friday, the team learned they will be playing Croatian squad Dinamo Zagreb in the next round.
"We can beat all the teams left. But we have to keep performing well," said Malmö FF's Jimmy Durmaz said to Expressen ahead of Friday's drawing.
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In anticipation of historic home match, which saw Malmö tie Rangers to advance to the next round of the Champions League tournament, the team decided to print up 300 special edition scarves to distribute to supporters.
But there was one problem: the scarves has misspelled “Champions League” – and the error was only discovered merely a day before kickoff.
"We decided to make the scarf in a 'Treskilling Yellow' version," joked Malmö FF's communications director Per Welinder to the Expressen daily, referring to the well-known Swedish stamp with a typo that holds the world-record auction price for a single postage stamp.
Indeed, Malmö's grade-school spelling blunder may end up helping the scarves – and the club – achieve similar levels of fame.
The initial embarrassment has been turned into a PR success story, as newspapers from all across the country have written about the fiasco.
In addition, long queues of fans looking to buy the unique scarf have sinced formed in Malmö FF's shop.
"When did you last see a scarf becoming a news item on the TT news agency? Our scarf was in the papers throughout the country, all the way up to papers in northern Västerbotten. I can't call this anything but a total success, from a PR perspective," said Per Welinder to newspaper Dagens Media.
"We're extremely pleased, the scarf is sold out and has become a great deal for us. The scarf has become somewhat legendary, and everyone wants to talk about it."
After beating out Glasgow Rangers with 2-1 in Wednesday's game, Malmö FF will now be playing in the final qualifying round to Champions League.
On Friday, the team learned they will be playing Croatian squad Dinamo Zagreb in the next round.
"We can beat all the teams left. But we have to keep performing well," said Malmö FF's Jimmy Durmaz said to Expressen ahead of Friday's drawing.
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