New methods of financing football clubs in developed countries and the developing countries have a comparative study

The main objective of this comparative study is to see how professional football clubs in Iran and England’s premier league are financed. This applied research has been conducted in a descriptive and analytical way. The results of the study showed that there is a significant difference between the ways through which English and Iranian professional football league clubs are financed. Most Iranian clubs are funded by government and industry-based sources (65%) while most English clubs are private and are funded by television broadcasting rights (31%), match-day income and cash flow from business (22%). Some major barriers to financing Iranian professional football league clubs are as follows; the state-run clubs, lack of financial transparency , the fact that IRIB refuses to pay the media broadcasting right to the clubs, failure in complying with copyright law in Iran , inappropriate competition schedules, unsuccessful club marketing management, club managers lack of awareness about new methods of financing , limited use of creative sport directors with financial and business expertise at different levels of football industry.