Identifying Strategies for Attracting Sponsors in the Women's Football League of Iran

CITE: Bagheri, Zare, Alimohammadi, Identifying Strategies for Attracting Sponsors in the Women's Football League of Iran, Research in Sport Management & Motor Behavior, 2021: 11(21): 143-159 ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to identify strategies attracting sponsors for Iranian women's football league. This study conducted in Delphi technique. First, strategies attractiing sponsors were listed in four categories: legislation, media broadcasting, federation/ league organization programs, and club programs. Then, the experts' opinions on these strategies were collected in three times. The research population consisted of two groups: 1) academic experts; 2) coaches and supervisors of the women's football teams in Pro league. 21 persons were selected as Delphi panel by judgment sampling. Delphi panel reached a consensus on 25 proposed strategies. "Games broadcasting; popular sports TV programs’ focus; and license for launching private TV” had the most and "governmentalized women's teams" had the least agreement. Media strategies, club activities, federation/league organization activities, and legislative decisions were prioritized, respectively. According to the results, the most important strategies were related to the media, which shows that sponsors were associated with women's football because of more public exposure and wider or more loyal target community. Therefore, with the social and religious sensitivities about women, resolving media challenges requires negotiation with socially and politically influential groups. Also, the performance of clubs should be improved to increase the league's commercial value and attractiveness. 1. Hadi Bagheri, (Ph. D) Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran.