Sponsoring Iran's Football Pro-League; Sponsorship or Ambush Marketing?

Sponsorship is one of the most important sources of income for football clubs and one of the best ways to promotion for sponsors, but today, ambush marketers are considered as a threat for sponsoring companies. The purpose of this study was to investigate effectiveness of sponsoring Iran Football Pro-League. Descriptive-survey method was used. Research sample included 515 spectators of pro-league that selected by stratified random sampling. The result showed that 80.6% of respondents recognized Irancell as pro-league sponsor. Also, chi-square test showed that significantly Irancell was recognized more than ambushers as official sponsor of pro-league. Persons that watched live broadcasting of pro-league matches more than others, incorrectly recognized ambushers as sponsor. Finally, also Irancell acquired high awareness via sponsoring pro-league, but Hamrah-e-Avval by ambushing gained an impressive recognition as pro-league sponsor.