Investigating the Effective Factors on Improving the Performance of the Police Force in Controlling Violence and Maintaining the Security of Spectators in Iranian Premier Football League Competitions

Spectator behavior management has been one of the criteria for evaluating the performance of police in ensuring the security of sports competitions. Therefore, according to the subject of this research, the performance of the police force and the control of spectator violence in the Premier Football League competitions have been studied.

In terms of its objectives the present study is of an applied research type and descriptive-analytic. The research method is mixed (qualitative-quantitative). The first phase (qualitative) was conducted using interview tools with 32 individuals from club officials, players, fans, deans and law enforcement personnel. The sampling was done using available and purposeful method at this stage and 41 factors were identified through qualitative analysis. In the quantitative phase, using the factors identified in the qualitative phase, a questionnaire was developed and through a modified classic Delphi this questionnaire was provided for the interviewees, which was conducted in two stages. Analysis of items that had at least 60% positive response remained in the next step. At this stage, 5 dimensions and 32 items were identified. At the third stage, through a Delphi questionnaire and a quantitative interview, 180 individuals were provided with a researcher-made questionnaire. To determine the face and content validity, it was sent to 5 professors of sports management and its reliability was obtained through Cronbach's alpha as 86%.

The findings showed that the cultural and social dimension with a factor load of 0.75, management dimension with a factor load of 0.64, control and monitoring dimension with a factor load of 0.43, recognition of violence and abnormal behaviors with a factor load of 0.27 and the educational dimension with a factor load of 0.13 were the most important.

It is important for police force to be vigilant with strategic plans against events that may occur during sports competitions and to prevent the recurrence of problems. Keywords: Police performance, Spectator security, Violence control, Iranian Football Premier League.