Identification and analysis of factors affecting the development of basic football in Iran

Subject Areas : Sport Sciences Quarterly

Mohsen Bahadori ¹ , Seyed Ehsan Amirhosseini ^{2 *} , Vali Nowzari ³

1 - PhD student, Sports Management Department, Yasouj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Yasouj, Iran
2 - Associate Professor, Department of Sport Management , Yasuj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Yasuj, Iran.
3 - Sports Management Department, Arsanjan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Arsanjan, Iran

Received: 2025-02-04 Accepted : 2025-04-04 Published : 2025-08-18

Keywords: talent search, competence, football federation, basic football,

Abstract :

Among the various sports, football is the most popular and sought-after sport in the world, and football development is of interest to managers. Given the impact of grassroots football development on football development, it also pays special attention to the education of children and youth, and for this reason, grassroots football is of great importance to FIFA. Therefore, the aim of this research was to present a grassroots football development model in Iran with an interpretative structural approach. The present study was applied in terms of purpose and descriptive in terms of method, which was conducted as a mixture of qualitative and quantitative. Sampling in the qualitative part was based on a specialized and targeted panel and was equal to 18 people. The statistical population in the quantitative part included officials and experts of the Youth and Talent Committee of the Football Federation and the provincial football boards and managers of football clubs and schools. Due to the unlimited statistical population, the sample size was determined to be 384 people, which was first selected through stratified random sampling and then through availability. The research tool was a researcher-made questionnaire. The validity of the questionnaire was verified by 10 sports management professors, and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha test, while the codes were reviewed by 5 participants and recoded by two coders. SPSS and LISREL software were used to analyze the data. The findings showed that 78 indicators in the form of 19 components (guidance and leadership, planning, interactions and communications, organization, executive actions, laws and regulations, control and monitoring, individual motivational factors, organizational motivational factors, family motivational and attitudinal factors, growth opportunities, justice-centered, human resource recruitment, human resource improvement, income from grassroots football, sponsors, turf fields, equipment, and cultural and social) in the dimensions of management, motivation and attitude, core competencies, human resources, finance, facilities and equipment, and cultural and social have an impact on the development of grassroots football. It can be said that developing interactions with FIFA and AFC and concluding cooperation agreements and implementing agreements with countries that have the futsal style, meritocracy and development and technical, specialized and managerial empowerment and establishing a comprehensive talent management system contribute greatly to the sustainable development of grassroots football