Investigating the Role of Fan- Team Identification in the Sponsorship Consequences in Professional Football League of Iran

The aim of the current study was to provide a modelincludingthe effect of fan-team identification on the sponsorship consequences in professional football league of Iran. The research was a descriptive–survey and a field study. The research tool was a combination of researcher developed questionnaire (Sponsorship consequences questionnaire with12items) as well as Mael and Ashforth (1992) Fan-team identification questionnairewiththree items. The research population was football fans in Professional Football League in Iran. 241 football fans were randomly investigated at the selected stadiums. The reliability forsponsorship consequences questionnaire and Fan-team identification questionnaire was found to be 0.83 and 0.88 respectivelybased on Cronbach’s alpha.Moreover, the validity of the tool was verified by conducting face, content, and structural validity. SPSS18 and Smart PLS as well as Structural Equations Modeling (SEM) approach were used for data analysis. Findings demonstrated that "fan-team identification" had a positive and significant effect on "Sponsor recognition"(β= 0.544, t= 7.447), "Positive attitude toward sponsors" (β= 0.495, t= 6.962),"Financial support of sponsors"(β= 0.461, t= 5.939),and "Satisfaction with sponsors" (β= 0.361, t= 3.05),among football fans. In other words, strengthening the fan-team identification level can improve the sponsorship consequences in Professional Football League in Iran. According to the importance of fan-team identification in sponsorship consequences, sport marketers as well as corporates that are active in sport events, will be able to be more efficient in sport context by concentrating on identification concept.