Proposing a Framework to Rank and Select Volleyball Players using SWARA and TODIM Methods (Case Study: Selected Team of the World in 2015)

Today, sport competitions are being held under different titles around the world and have attracted many fans. Team sports like football and volleyball have turned to big businesses and huge amounts of money are involved in the transfer of team players. So, one of the important issues in sports is to search new team members to fill open positions and to enhance the quality of the teams. Single attribute decision has recently been made to select top volley ball players while experts believe that this field requires multi attribute decisions. Therefore, the aim of this study was to provide a scientific framework to rank volleyball players and to select top players to play their roles in different positions. Firstly, a list of criteria to select players in different positions was provided using literature review and meetings with experts of the field. Then, SWARA method and experts’ viewpoints were employed to prioritize and weigh the mentioned criteria. TODIM method was introduced to finally select top players from the existing options. To assure the accuracy of the research path, the designed framework was used to rank those players participating in 2015 World Cup in Japan and to form the world selected team. This study was application in terms of aims and descriptive – survey in terms of data collection.