Owen Hargreaves tells England players to control media noise ahead of Qatar 2022

Former England midfielder Owen Hargreaves has urged England players to focus on the field rather than online and mainstream media channels.

Hargreaves joined Adrian Bevington, former Football Association (FA) MD and Head of Communications at the inaugural CIPR Sports Network event held in early November ahead of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

Despite fans and media being sceptical, Hargreaves went on to be named England’s player of the 2006 World Cup and attributed it to his single-minded focus.

It took time for Hargreaves to win over the England fans, having been born in Canada before playing for Bayern Munich before he had ever played in his home country.

He explained: “In this country, we are very quick to judge people, very quick to critique people. I told the media they should critique me at the end of the tournament, not before.

“I don’t tick every box, I was born in Canada, I played in Germany, but that doesn’t make my Dad any less English.

“When I wore that shirt, I wore it for the fans back home, but also I was representing my family’s name. I thought it was such an honour, I felt like I had to do more because I felt so many people cared so much about the England team and my dad always said to me you have to leave everything out there. I might play poorly, but I always gave it everything”.

Although Hargreaves appreciates the importance of players using social media to help control their narrative, his advice was to block it out as much as possible.

“People are going to have their opinions and say what they like, but whether you allow that to get on top of you is a different matter.

“Obviously you want to play well and want everyone to praise you, but sometimes you aren’t going to play great and I think listening to all the noise, reading all the columns and comments, there is no way that is going to be beneficial for anyone.

“Switch off the comments section, don’t listen to the good or the bad comments, just focus on your craft. It’s a beautiful opportunity, it’s a thing that can change your life. It doesn’t matter how many games you play in your life, fans are only going to remember 5-10 minutes from you, that’s just how it is, and these players have the opportunity to control that narrative.

“Go on and play the best game of your life. Control the noise, block out as much of it as you can and focus on your craft, and the good things will come.

“What made me perform well in the 2006 World Cup is I didn’t turn on the TV, I didn’t read the paper, I did not want myself to be clouded by people’s opinions that did not know me, that were critiquing me.

“That’s what you see on social media, there’s no face-to-face and people just slaughter each other which is ridiculous.”

Now a pundit on BT Sport, Hargreaves takes his role seriously having swapped the pitch for the studio.

He added: “I still try to even treat my job like I was one of those guys I was critiquing as I have been on the other end of it.

“I’d like to do my job to the point where players, coaches and fans will go yes, I don’t agree with everything he is saying, but it is in a constructive way.

“I do have a job to do and analyse the game, but I think we are better off working together.”

Bevington worked at the FA for more than 17 years and believes that the media has changed significantly since he first joined, with a 24/7 news cycle, wall-to-wall coverage, and perhaps a softer mainstream media these days.

He explained: “The landscape is very different now to what it was maybe 15 or 16 years ago. I think it is far better than what it was back then.

“We had far more aggressive football media during my period… I don’t sense anymore that the chaos is there as it was. You go through phases obviously, but I don’t think the frenzy is there as it was in the early 2000s.

“Now, the players are in a great place, they look like they are enjoying being with England, the culture and environment around the squad looks the best it has been and the media like them, and the public like them too, which shows the level of engagement is where it needs to be.

“Gareth Southgate deserves a huge amount of praise for the way he has unlocked things and understood the media a lot better than other managers historically, being a lot more willing to engage the whole group”

Bevington agreed with Hargreaves but thinks each player has to do what they feel is right for them.

He added: “My advice to any of the players would be you have to do it in a way that they feel comfortable, they are all individuals and I think social media with all it’s negative challenges, it also provides the players the opportunity to have a voice that they didn’t have previously.

“Now they can be human beings if they’d like to be, present themselves with a much broader personality and gives themselves the opportunity to correct something if its not true.”

Bevington also explained how the FA would have approached the challenges of implementing an FA communication strategy for Qatar, considering the controversy and sensitivity associated with the tournament.

“The FA would have had a lot of discussions about it because it has been on the agenda for such a long time, whether it is the worker’s rights issues or the various issues around LGTBQ,” added Bevington.

“Anything concerning the FA’s position and the player’s position would have been discussed in great detail.

“I see that the players are more empowered than ever before, to formulate their own position and unless its something that is going to cause an untenable problem for the FA, the players will be encouraged to position themselves as they see appropriate, and so far they haven’t done a bad job.”