Is It a Private Issue? Exploring Chinese Fans’ Perceptions of Manchester City’s Crisis Response to the Kyle Walker Sexual Harassment

This study investigates how diverse crisis response strategies and communicators, considering fans’ identification, influence Chinese fans’ perceptions following the sexual harassment incident involving Manchester City player Kyle Walker. Utilizing a factorial design, the experiment manipulated between-subject factors with a 2 (response source: coach vs. team) x 2 (response strategy: punishing vs. distancing) configuration, involving a sample size of 391 participants. The findings reveal that the impact of crisis response strategies on team reputation and crisis responsibility was insignificant. However, the response strategies significantly affected support for the Manchester City, with the punishing strategy eliciting higher levels of support compared to the distancing strategy. Neither the communicator nor the interaction between the communicator and response strategy had a significant effect on the dependent variables. Regardless of the crisis response strategy employed, a higher level of team identification predicted a higher level of team reputation, a lower attribution of crisis responsibility, and increased support for Manchester City among fans. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.