Recognition and prioritizing effective cultural measures in promoting etiquette in stadiums

The purpose of this study was to identify and prioritize effective cultural measures in promoting attendance etiquette in Iranian football stadiums using a hierarchical analysis method with the aim of improving their security.

This research was of mixed type and in the qualitative phase, cultural measures which are effective on enhancing etiquette at Iranian football stadiums were identified during thirteen semi-structured interviews with experts by conventional content analysis. In the quantitative phase, twelve participants of the qualitative phase completed the AHP pairwise comparison matrix and compared the measures identified in the qualitative phase in pairs in terms of importance and the data were analyzed by analytical hierarchy process and using the Expert Choice software.

The findings showed that culture building with relative weighting 0.177 is the most important action in the development of culture and etiquette of the presence of people in football stadiums. Acculturation, legal support, monitoring and control, planning and management, executive support, organizing sports agents, Co-thinking and networking, and academic promotion with weights of 0.167, 0.122, 0.121, 0.119, 0.107, 0.071, 0.068, and 0.048 were placed in the next priorities, respectively (incompatibility rate = 0.01).

It seems that identifying appropriate behavioral patterns and introducing them to the target communities, including spectators, athletes, and coaches, etc., by football organizers, as well as cultural and sports policy makers, and also, the proper allocation and spending of cultural budgets in this path can help in educating a new generation of football fans and improving the security of football stadiums in the future. However, those measures that have been prioritized in the lower ranks are still important and should not be neglected.