A Theoretical Model for Identifying Media Value of Football Players in Iranian Professional League

Media revenues are the most important of the four major types of revenues in the football industry. In addition to the reputation of the teams and the technical attractiveness of the matches, these revenues are also influenced by the economic value of players created by the media, which is referred to as "media value". Considering the importance of media value of players in the club's economic and the lack of tools for identifying this value, the present study provides a theoretical model for media value of football players in The Iran Premier League, and provides a basis for identifying the economic value of Iranian football. The development of this model in the future research can provide a tool for measuring and rating players as part of the football assets. Using the Glaser approach of the grounded theory method and in-depth interviews with a set of people including advertisers, club managers, club sponsors, football fans and experts, the main factors affecting the media value of football players were extracted, and a theoretical model was presented by identifying their relationship with each other. Accordingly, factors affecting the media value of football players include personal factors, professional factors, media factors, and non-acquired factors. This model identifies football players as a media product for the dual-product market of media, attracting a variety of media and brand revenues. This model is expected to be used in developing independent business models and appropriate utilization of media capacities to improve the economic capacity of Iranian football clubs