Exploring the Human Factors Contributing to the Occurrence of Spectators’ Violence with a Security-law Enforcement Approach in the Popular Teams of Iran’s Football Premier League

Violent behavior of football spectators is one of the basic problems that in addition to economic losses, also leads to cultural, moral, social and political harms. Therefore, the present study is aimed at exploring the human factors contributing the occurrence of spectators’ violence with a security-disciplinary approach in the popular teams of the Iranian Football Premier League.

The present research method is qualitative and field-based. First, library studies were conducted to prepare a list of factors contributing to the occurrence of violence and then through in-depth and semi-structured interviews with 17 experts. Also, the sampling method was theoretical, purposeful and non-random, and the opinions of university professors and football elites were used, and Max QDA 2020 was utilized to analyze the qualitative data of the research.

A total of 34 human indicators contributing to the occurrence of spectator violence were identified. They are divided into two fundamental factors and include seven factors: referee, technical staff, our players, the rival team players, spectators’ conditions, club management and the organizers of the match. Paying attention to each of these cases could contribute to the reduction of spectators’ violence and could help calm the spectators watching the match, which requires establishing a proper culture on the part of spectators via training them through the media and press, as well as monitoring and controlling spectators in stadiums and dealing with cases violating law.