Identifying Strategies for Attracting Sponsors in the women's football league of Iran

Abstract The purpose of this study was to identify strategies attracting sponsors for the womenchr('39')s football league of Iran. This descriptive study conducted in Delphi technique. In the first step of study, sponsor attraction strategies were listed in four categories: legislation, media broadcasting, federation/league organization programs, and club programs. then, the expertschr('39') opinions on these strategies were collected in three times. The research population consisted of two groups: 1) academic experts; and 2) coaches and supervisors of the womenchr('39')s football teams in Premier league. Among these, 21 persons were selected as Delphi panel by judgment sampling. Delphi panel reached a consensus on 25 proposed strategies (from 36). "Games broadcasting; popular sports TV programs’ focus on womenchr('39')s football; and license for launching private TV” had the most and "governmentalized womenchr('39')s teams" had the least agreement. In general, Media strategies, club activities, federation/league organization activities, and legislative decisions were prioritized, respectively. According to the results, the most important proposed strategies were related to the media, which shows that Sponsors were associated with womenchr('39')s football because of more public exposure and wider or more loyal target community. Therefore, with the current social conditions and religious sensitivities about women, resolving media challenges requires negotiation with socially and politically influential groups. In addition, the performance level of clubs should be improved in order to increase the leaguechr('39')s commercial value and attractiveness.