Identifying strategies to combat vandalism in Iran’s premier football league stadiums

Nowadays, the security process is among the most important and essential planning issues in the realm of the activity of the football competitions’ organizers; because football is the center of attention and many people belonging to various classes of society presence are interested in watching football matches in stadiums. In this regard, maintaining security and peace in the society is the most important task of the police force. Therefore, the present research was carried out with the aim of identifying strategies to combat vandalism in the stadiums of the Premier Football League of Iran.

The present research aims to achieve applied outcomes and was of exploratory type. For this purpose, theoretical saturation was achieved with 19 experts in a purposeful judgment and using in-depth and semi-structured interviews. The data was collected using an exploratory approach through the identification process and its analysis using the qualitative software: MaxQD. Also, the validity of the research was taken into consideration by using issues such as the accurate selection of samples, simultaneous data collection and analysis, consistency in the research methodology, and the repeated reliability of the test.

According to the findings of the research, the monitoring and security, educational, technical, managerial, safety, communication, and environmental components were recognized as the main strategies to combat the occurrence of vandalism. Also, according to the observed frequency, the concept of security with an importance factor of 133, event management with an importance factor of 114, infrastructure and communication networks each with an importance factor of 102, and risk assessment with an importance factor of 101 had the highest importance coefficients among other concepts.
The results of the current research emphasize the attention paid to the supervisory and security, educational, technical, managerial, safety, communication, and environmental approaches in combating the occurrence of vandalism in the stadiums of the Premier Football League of Iran. In this context, attention should be paid to factors such as the provision of facilities, control the stadium by digital cameras, the presence of trained police before and after the match, security measures of the external environment around the sports stadium, special supervision of the security team in decisive games, protection of sports venues against poisonous substances, the appropriate price of the ticket is suggested taking into account the conditions of society and the management of information conditions and the reflection of public opinion in order to prevent the occurrence of vandalism in sports stadiums.