فرزاد غفوری

Sports diplomacy is regarded as one of the most important communicative components among nations in their international relations. Regarding the mentioned fact, the main objective of this study was to provide a paradigm of sport diplomacy in the foreign policy of Iran. This is a qualitative study with exploratory nature by applying the Strauss and Corbin grounded theory approach. The data collection tool was semi-structured interviews with 14 elites including sports experts and policymakers. Findings demonstrated 133 initial concepts in open coding, reduced into 27 categories, and categorized into six main themes to support the initial development of the model. The results showed that adopting appropriate strategies like managerial evolution, developing indigenous models, national brand-making through sports, educating and empowering human resources, legal and structural development of sports diplomacy, and cultural changes in Iranian professional sports could bring greater consequences that encourage governing bodies to alter attitudes toward the role of sports diplomacy, and to empowers foreign policy for strengthening mutual relations worldwide.     

Health and well-being have become significant dimensions of urban sustainability, particularly in countries with rapid urbanization. Community sports affect the health and vitality of society's population. Although planning for city management has existed throughout history, an integrated structure of the role of sports in urban planning to improve the quality of life and health of citizens has not yet been defined. This study aims to present a community sports planning program in metropolitan areas of Iran. The research was qualitative, and was done using the grounded theory approach based on the systematic approach of Strauss and Corbin (1998). 13 participants were purposefully selected from experts in the field of public sports development for interviewing. The final model was based on 6 categories and 36 factors. Gender and infrastructure were the most contextual factors. Cultural and underlying factors were given more attention than casual factors. Among intervening factors, media, monitoring, and evaluation got more emphasis. The categories of infrastructure and planning were mostly emphasized in the strategies section. While, in the model implementation consequences section, cultural and social consequences were mostly emphasized. Through a participatory approach to sports development, metropolitan municipalities can better understand the needs of their citizens. A bottom-up or company-centric approach allows organizers to reconstruct sports presentation models based on each metropolis. 

The worldwide coronavirus pandemic has led to the emergence of different patterns of behavior in different contexts; one of the most important of these contexts is leisure. The aim of this study was to identify the concepts and categories of leisure during the coronavirus pandemic (emphasis on sports-related studies) and using a qualitative meta-synthesis method. For this purpose, after searching for resources related to the field of leisure (emphasis on sports-related studies) during the coronavirus pandemic, 169 primary sources were found and among them 36 sources were selected and analyzed. The results of a meta-synthesis of leisure studies during the coronavirus pandemic (emphasis on sports-related research) was classified into 7 main categories physical, cognitive (mental), emotional, sociocultural, economic, technology, and environmental conditions and a sports leisure model was presented during the coronavirus pandemic. According to the results of this study, if proper planning and monitoring by sports-related organizations and the media is considered, sports leisure time during the coronavirus pandemic can bring physical, cognitive (mental), emotional and sociocultural benefits for individuals and reduce the negative effects of coronavirus disease in communities. On the other the coronavirus pandemic has revolutionized leisure conditions, and in particular sports leisure, by revolutionizing technology, economics, and conditions environment.

Background: Sports facilities are one of the most commonly used services in the city with a significant role in improving the physical and mental health condition of citizens thus a proper procedure is required to locate and distribute them. Aim : The purpose of this study is to design a comprehensive model for the optimal location of sports facilities. Materials and Methods: The research method is descriptive-analytic based on information gathering and is applied research based on objectives. The opinions of 20 experts have been used to design the model using the Delphi method, and weighting the effective criteria in the sports facilities location. The weight of each criterion has been obtained as population density (0.47), access (0.31), development potential (0.14), and adjacency (0.08); furthermore, the Kendall coefficient of concordance (0.74) in the third step of the Delphi method shows the strong agreement between the experts, regarding the proposed model. The proposed model consisted of six steps: 1. Aim; 2. Verification of the functional area of the existing sport facilities and specific restrictions of the area; 3. Introducing and weighting the important criteria in the sports facilities location; 4. Identifying the most suitable locations for constructing the sports facilities; 5. Evaluating the needs of users; 6. Selecting the best spaces and prioritizing them. Results: The results of the model showed that the most important criteria for locating sport facilities are population density, access, development potential, and adjacency. Additionally, it was indicated that the agreement between the experts increased over time. Conclusion: According to the proposed model, it is possible to identify the points that are suitable for constructing the new sports facilities.