Application of National Identity in Sport Policy of Iran

The link between modern sport and nationalism has been established and traceable since the beginning of the development of these two phenomena. On the one hand, sport has always been a platform for building, expanding, legitimizing and influencing nationality and national culture. On the other hand, it was governments and identity movements that helped strengthen, expand, and influence modern sport. In this study, considering the analysis of the link between sport and government - modern nations, the results of 34 in-depth interviews with 28 experts, academics and athletes have been analyzed with a background method. In addition to physical activity, exercise is a process for metamorphosis and the production of identity ideas for these participants. Therefore, the answer to the fundamental research question on how national identity influences sports and sports policy, extracting key concepts such as national pride, continuation of socio-gender norms, consolidation of ideology and political propaganda, the present study shows that the issue of identity in sports as a process for the production and transformation of identity ideas, it has been used in terms such as "sports nationalism" or "sports patriotism". .