The Future of Crisis Management in Iran's Professional Football: a Multi-Faceted Scenario Planning

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Ph.D. Student of Sport Management Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran

2 Associate Professor of Sport Management, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch ,Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran

3 Assistant Professor of Sport Management, Isfahan Branch (Khorasgan), Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran

Abstract

Purpose: Before the crisis, there is an opportunity to prevent some serious damage by predicting and managing possible crises. The absence of crisis management scenarios and conscious prediction of crises in Iran's professional football is visible. Therefore, the aim of this study is to present crisis management scenarios in Iranian professional football.
Methods: This research is a qualitative research from the point of view of the career goal and the perspective of the prospective research. In this study, the analytical approach and the final processing of the findings using the analysis of trends and uncertainties and the integrated scenario planning model have been used. The participants of the present analytical and exploratory study included 29 domestic and foreign stakeholders of Iranian professional football who were selected based on purposeful sampling. Data was collected through interviews and open questionnaires. Data analysis was done with the six-step model of combined scenario planning of Lipzig and Rollandberger.
Results: The findings and analysis of the 35 main factors obtained led to the production of 13 key uncertainties and 8 desirable, probable, possible and believable scenarios for the future of crisis management in Iranian professional football.
Conclusion:  In the end, the strategy of "technology as a solution to change the behavioral pattern of fans during social and economic crises" was introduced as the main crisis management strategy in Iran's professional football in the future.

Keywords

References

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Research in Sport Management and Marketing
Volume 7, Issue 2
In Progress
2026
Pages 58-76

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