Journal of New Studies in Sport Management (JNSSM)

Audience behaviour is an external factor which could influence an athlete’s performance during a match due to the evaluative attitude which it might convey. One of the most common positive influences on a team’s motivation can be attributed to a supportive and cheering audience. Contrastingly, jeering can be interpreted as negative influence. High emotions exchanged between the spectators and the players may also show the important ties which bind them together, and this can affect the players’ behaviour on the field of play. This study focuses on how crowd behaviour in Maltese football influences the players’ performance in the game. The influence of spectator behaviour on the psychological state of six male national senior football team members and six male national team youth players was analysed through data gathered from individual semi-structured interviews. Results show that both senior and youth players are influenced by variables of audience behaviour and feel pressured and anxious throughout matches.  Incentives for positive behaviour need to be introduced, together with sanctions for the breaking of rules, as well as slogans and placards placed in the stands for further awareness need to become the norm. If we are to curb societal issues such as racism and violence, the need for educational strategies is clear.

This article aims to discourse analysis the concept of corruption in the Ninety (90) TV program and understands how this program is used to criticize corruption and construct the corruption discourse in football. This research has attempted to analyze three programs on corruption using a CDA method and conflating Laclau, and Mouffe with Fairclough, and Van Dijk's approaches to understand the discursive order of the program and to highlights nodal points and moments. In this TV program, the nodal point of Ferdowsipours' discourse is anti-corruption: poor management, slogan-oriented, Lack of seriousness, institutionalism, Lack of government involvement, democracy, and attention to infrastructure are its moments. In the context of political corruption, the involvement of government and politicians in sports affairs is irrational, and attention to democracy and good governance can be helpful. In the context of competitive corruption and bribery, the most important way out of corruption is to pay attention to the cooperation of institutions and administrative and legal grounds. Regarding the dealings in football, the host criticized the people involved in this case and pointed out that corruption in Iranian football is common. In this program, the signifiers for law, governance, equality, and serious struggle are some of the essential signifiers highlighted. Each participant has considered the entry of politics into sports as a factor of Corruption. Furthermore, the focus of the program is more on the social practices in Iran (the current state of football), and its epistemes are based more on the local context.

The goal of this study was to compare the use of sports facilities of selected universities in Iran with some Canadian universities. This study was comparative and data collection was done through interviews with directors of physical education departments of the selected universities. All the universities studied in this paper are faced with a crisis of financial resources and revenue generation; however, a common weak point of Iranian universities is that they lack initial plan for efficient design as well as expert designers in construction of university spaces. Based on the findings, in the Canadian universities the facilities have the highest multi-purpose applications. Accordingly, practical and applicable recommendations have been suggested to office of development plans of Iran’s ministry of science, research and technology to improve the operation of sports facilities in Iranian universities.

Psychological commitment has been to date one of the interesting research topics in sports psychology. To achieve a deeper understanding of sports fans' psychological characteristics, this study aimed to design a qualitative model of the factors affecting psychological commitment in football fans in Iran based on grounded theory approach. In this qualitative-analytical study, 27 experts in the field of sports and fan loyalty in the Iranian Football Premier League from the top universities in Iran were interviewed based on purposive and triangulation sampling approach. The data analysis was also performed by open and axial coding, of which 53 concepts and 11 categories were classified under five general themes. The developed research model consisted of five major effective factors including: triggers, psychological characteristics, demographic characteristics, reference groups, and club-related issues. The results revealed that such factors could be the main actors shaping sports fans' psychological commitment.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors affecting the sudden buying of sportswear in sports stores in Mazandaran, Iran. This applied research has been done by descriptive-survey method. The statistical population of the study was the customers of a reputable sports store in Mazandaran province. 385 customers were selected through  available sampling method. A valid and reliable researcher-developed questionnaire was used for data collection, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted for data analysis and hypotheses test. The results showed that the store environment (light, color, music, fragrance) has a positive effect on the sudden buying behavior of store customers. Moreover, the findings demonstrated that layout and physical appearance (Product availability, booth guide, product layout, building appearance, and staff coverage), as well as facilities available in the store and ancillary services (cafes and restaurants, amusement parks, child care centers), affect the psychological characteristics of customers' sudden buying behavior. By focusing on the research findings, the managers of sports stores can have a positive impact on customers’ sudden buying and improving the selling approaches.

The purpose of this study was to clarify and analyze the factors affecting the access of Zanjan province football teams to higher levels of national leagues in Iran. The method of this study was mixed. The research population consisted of 193 coaches and 18 members selected from chairpersons and secretaries of Zanjan province football associations. The sampling was purposive at the interview stage, but at the stage of distributing the questionnaire, given the limited number of first, second, and third-class coaches and also the limited number of chairpersons and secretaries of football associations, the samples were selected through total sampling approach and in the case of class 4 coaches, 108 subjects were chosen according to Morgan table. The research tool was only a questionnaire. The validity of the questionnaire was approved by 12 experts and its reliability was found to be 0.94 according to Cronbach's alpha. For data analysis, Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Binomial, and Friedman tests were used. The results of the research showed that among the general factors except for the research and education, the effect of other factors including economic, technical, facilities and equipment, managerial, psychological, social, and cultural, and among the minor factors, 22 out of 29 factors are significantly higher than the average. Considering the explained factors and investment in these factors can help the football teams in Zanjan province to promote to the higher Levels of national leagues in Iran.