Thematic Analysis of the Representation of the Dimensions of Ethnic Identity among Football Spectators

Today, the exciting arena of watching football matches in multi-ethnic communities such as Iran has become an arena for showing and expressing ethnic identities. Accordingly, the study is to represent the dimensions of ethnic identity among football spectators by thematic analysis. The population included fans of three textile teams: Mazandaran, Khuzestan Steel and Tabriz Tractor, from three ethnic groups: Mazani, Turk and Arab. The sampling method was purposive that 28 in-depth interviews were conducted until reaching the theoretical saturation stage, 17 of which were coded and analyzed using Nvivo8 software.
The findings from the three-stage coding of qualitative data showed that spectators while watching the game in sports stadiums represent their ethnic identity through two components, each of which has its own dimensions.These two components are: 1) ethnicity through mental mediation (culture, history, racism, religion, symbolic attributes) and 2) ethnicity through objective mediation (land, music, diet, myths and celebrities, population rate, Symbolic cover, language, race).
 Therefore, it can be said that watching football matches has the potential to represent ethnic identity for spectators, which leads to the adoption of strategic policies to strengthen national identity in order to reduce tensions, taking into account differences based on ethnic identity.