The Role of Fan Loyalty on Mental Toughness of Futsal Premier League Players

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of fan loyalty on the mental toughness of the Futsal Premier League players. This study is descriptive and correlational. The purpose of the present study is based on the purpose of the field study. The statistical population of this study consists of all the players of the Futsal Premier League clubs (There are 138 players in the teams of Copa Sungun, Gityepsand, Sohan Mohammad Sima Qom, Ahvaz Drilling, Azarakhsh Bandar Abbas and Shahin Kermanshah. All players were selected as the sample of the study, out of which 129 questionnaires were returned correctly). To collect data, Kobasa Mental Hardiness Questionnaire (1984) and Fan Loyalty Questionnaire from the Perspectives Viewpoint: Abul Hassani Customer Loyalty Questionnaire (2015) with reliability (α = 0.79) was used. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used in this study. Descriptive statistics were used to express demographic and descriptive characteristics of the study. Using elasticity and skewness indices to evaluate the distribution of data (natural or abnormal) and to answer and answer research questions and to draw up a measurement model and a structural model using SPSS 20 and Smart PLS version 2.0 (due to the small number of research samples) was used. The results showed that, at the level of 0.95, fan loyalty (attitude and behavioral loyalty) had an impact on athletes' mental toughness.