Abstract

Abstract
Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare the viewpoints of experts about the impediments of finding sponsors in Iran's professional football.
Methodology: The survey research design was used with a sample size of 116 consisting of 18 club managers, 40 sports management experts, 40 marketing experts, and 18 sponsor managers. Investigator-made questionnaire was used for data collection. Its face and content validity were confirmed by sports management and marketing instructors and its reliability was estimated 0.84 through Cronbach's alpha method. To analyze the collected data, we employed Cruscal-Wallis, Klomogrov-Smirnov, and Kendall's W methods (P≤0.05).
Results: The study showed that respondents prioritized the impediments of ‎finding sponsors in Iran's professional football differently. ‎Further there was a significant difference between the prioritization ‎of impediments of finding sponsors from the point of view of club ‎managers, sports management experts, marketing experts, and ‎sponsor managers.
Conclusion: The differences in viewpoints of the four groups of this study could indicate the gaps between academicians and practitioners viewpoints in football industry of our country. It is proposed to combine and use viewpoints of all groups.
Keywords: Sponsorship, Iran’s professional football, Managerial Impediments.