A Comparison of Online Marketing, Media Contents and Interaction with Fans through Official Websites of Football Clubs in Iran, Asia and Europe

This study was conducted to explore and compare official websites of professional football clubs of Europe, Asia and Iran with regard to providing contents and interaction with fans using official websites of clubs and their online marketing. For this purpose, official websites of all clubs participating in the final stages of UEFA Champions League (16 teams), AFC Champions League (16 teams), and Iran Premier League (18 teams) were examined. A researcher-made questionnaire was used in this study and its validity was approved by sport management experts and professors. The results showed that Iranian clubs websites offered the lowest online services (mean 26.90 out of 100) and had the lowest score of interaction with fans (14.89 out of 100) and the lowest online marketing and selling their products and services (mean 8.19 out of 100). The results of one-way ANOVA indicated a significant difference in the official websites of football clubs between Iran and Asia and Europe leagues in all three elements of online marketing, media content and interaction with fans.