Interaction with fans through club website as a marketing tool: study and comparison of professional football clubs of Iran, Asia and Europe

This study was conducted to explore and compare official websites of professional soccer clubs of Europe, Asia and Iran in regard of providing media contents for fans and using online marketing strategies. For this purpose, official websites of all existing clubs of UEFA Champions League (16 teams), AFC Champions League (16 teams), and Iran's Premier League was carefully observed by using a researcher-made questionnaire which it's validity was approved by experts and faculty members in sport management area. The results showed that Iranian clubs websites had lowest media contents (4.74 out of 20) and lowest using of online marketing strategies (1.19 out of 20). According to our results, there were not significant relationship between providing media contents and using online marketing strategies with ranking of the team. There was a significant relationship between providing media contents and using online marketing strategies among European soccer clubs (P<0.035). In other words, providing media contents through club website was a prelude to marketing merchandises and services of club and obtaining financial benefits.