Designing a model of brand influence in sports on the behavioral reactions of young athletes in Premier Leagues

The present study was conducted to design a model of the effect of brand in sports on the behavioral factors of young athletes in premier leagues. In terms of applied purpose, the present research method was a combination of sequential exploratory type and survey collection method. The statistical population in the qualitative section was experts in the field of sports marketing, sports psychology, sports sociology and sports management. Purposeful sampling in the qualitative section and interviews with experts continued until information saturation and 16 interviews were conducted with 16 experts. The statistical population of the research in the quantitative section included all young athletes in the top leagues of selected sports ( Football (288 players), volleyball (168 players), freestyle wrestling (71 players) were present in the top leagues, due to the difficulty of accessing young professional players, distributing questionnaires and analyzing them to reach sample adequacy. The data collection tool in the present study was a semi-structured interview and a researcher-made questionnaire. It was extracted in the form of two central codes.In the quantitative part, it was found that the brand in sports influences the behavioral factors of young professional athletes (path coefficient: 0.444 and T value: 5.152). Appropriate business leads to improved behavioral performance of young Premier League athletes.