Identifying Effective Factors in Transition of Football Players from Amateur to Professional Level in Iran

 The purpose of this work was to identify the effective factors in transition of football players from the amateur to the professional level in Iran.

 The research method was qualitative and based on the foundation data theory. Data analysis was done according to Glazer (1992). The population consisted of football experts (professional coaches, managers of the football federation of Iran, organizations of sports and youth, professional clubs and sport and physical education academies). The participants were interviewed, and the interviews stopped when we reached repetitive answers. In order to collect information in the first stage, the literature was reviewed. Then semi-structured interviews were done, which was carried out online because of pandemic. Validity, reliability, acceptability, transferability, and approvability were measured.

 The data analysis identified 245 primary codes. Then 120 primary independent code were created, and 20 sub-categories and 4 main categories (technical, academic and talent identification, and organizational and human resource factors) were identified as the factors affecting factors on transferring football players from the amateur to the professional level in Iran.

 According to the findings, we recognized management factors including the development of technical and sports factors, supervision of football academies and schools, and the issue of talent acquisition, the review of relevant sports organizations and finally the empowerment of human resources in the field of football and also key tools to face with challenges of transition process. This, is turn, can facilitate transferring the young amateur players to the professional levels.