Qualitative Analysis of the Pathology of Human Capital in Professional Football in Iran Case Study: Professional Referees of the Iranian Football Premier League

Football referees are one of the main and central components of football and face many problems that if not paid attention and identified injuries that reduce their performance and irreparable damage to the football body; Therefore, the purpose of this study was to qualitatively analyze the pathology of human capital of professional football in Iran, which was a case study on professional referees in the Iranian Football Premier League.This research is applied in terms of purpose, descriptive-analytical method and qualitative research in terms of implementation. Data collection tools were library resources, interviews and Delphi questionnaire. The statistical population in the interview section included all the elites in the field of football refereeing and familiar with human capital issues, which targeted 20 people, and in the Delphi section, all international and national referees of professional football in Iran, 25 of them targeted and snowball. Sample titles were considered. Open and axial coding, summarizing and filtering techniques were used to extract the raw data. Finally, all 57 injuries identified in the Iranian football refereeing department were confirmed by research experts. It can be concluded that structural, contextual and behavioral injuries are very important in the human group of judges. Undoubtedly, the results of the research can be used as a beacon in the future plans of the Iranian Football Federation, especially the referees' committee and department, and can be used in determining policies.