Identifying barriers to Development of Iranian Premier League Brand by Integrating Balanced Scorecard Approach and AHP

Brand is as one of the most important intangible assets of any organization and strategic analysis of brand development barriers in any organization including Iranian Premier League is necessary. Accordingly, the present study analyzed the barriers to the development of the Iranian Premier League brand by combining the Balanced Scorecard approach and the AHP. This study was conducted in two parts: Qualitative and Qualitative. The statistical population of this study consisted of sport management faculty with specialized marketing, soccer experts and experts, as well as executives of the league and football clubs. 18 individuals were interviewed in the qualitative part, and in the quantitative part, 85 individuals were selected as the statistical sample using non-probable judgment sampling (expert opinion). In the qualitative section, 157 labels were identified that influenced the development of the league brand and were then classified into 20 concepts in axial coding. In the quantitative part, the priority of each of the barriers affecting brand development was determined by the hierarchical analysis method, with first the weaknesses was the management structure and the last priority was the perceptual barriers. Applying this model can familiarize managers with the priorities of addressing the barriers to the development of the Iranian Premier League brand and allow for the integration of performance evaluation of the Iranian Premier League brand.