Role of Team Identification in Fan's Loyalty in Iran's Football Industry

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of team identification in fans’ loyalty of teams in Iran’s Football Premier League via structural equation modeling. The research method was descriptive-correlation. The statistical population of the study included all fans over 18 years old in the Premier League in 2016/17 season. 640 questionnaires were analyzed as statistical sample. Heer and et al (2011) questionnaire was used to measure team identification and Gladen and Funk (2001), and Iwasaki and Havitz (2004) questionnaires were used to measure attitudinal loyalty and behavioral loyalty respectively. After confirming the face and content validity of questionnaires, confirmed the reliability of team identification and loyalty questionnaires via Cronbach’s alpha coefficient in a pilot study. To analyze data were used structural equation modeling. Structural equation model analysis showed that team identification had positive and significant effect on fans’ loyalty. So, it is recommended to sport managers, to consider the issues such as acknowledgments the fans and trust building in fans in order to create and enhance the fans’ loyalty.