The Private Companies, and Sponsorship Motivation: A Case Study in Persian Gulf Premier League

Purpose: Regarding the restrictions of football clubs and insufficient income sources on the one hand and the revenue gained through television broadcasting rights, environmental advertising, and ticket sales, financial support from football clubs by sponsors should be mounted. Unfortunately, some issues have caused private companies to be disinclined in providing capital for football. Therefore, the present research was carried out to identify the factors influencing private companies’ motivation for sponsorship.Methodology: The present research was conducted via a qualitative method based on the phenomenological approach. Predominantly, the phenomenological approach reveals the nature of meaning concealed in experiences and aims to comprehend the experience concept in the same way the person did. The Participants into semi-structured interviews included sport management faculty members, senior managers of the football federation, football clubs, managers, senior managers of private companies, and sports instructors. The validity and reliability of the findings were applied.Findings: The factors impact the private companies, motivation to support football clubs. They include 52 sub-contents from 8 main contents: Adherence to Behavioral Norms, Financial Growth, Government Support, Development of Refereeing, Media Promotion, Managerial Development, Club Brand Enhancement, and supporting companies’ development.Originality: We found new concepts to increase private companies’ motivation in football club sponsorship.