Investigating the reasons for fans' loyalty to football clubs in Iran (a meta-analytical study)

The present study was a meta-analysis with the aim of determining the effect size on the factors affecting the loyalty of fans in Iran’s football clubs.The statistical population included all internal studies conducted in the period of 2009 to 2020. From among the reported studies, 21 cases containing required conditions for entering meta-analysis, were selected by census. For data analysis, SPSS and CMA2 software were performed and the effect size of research was evaluated using r index. The results showed that the combined effect size of the studies in the fixed effects model was 0.352 and in the random effects model was 0.362, which according to Cohen's classification is a moderate effect size.The results of the Cochran test showed the heterogeneity of the studies and the meta-regression results showed that with increasing the year of publication of the research, their effect size increases and the results of Rosenthal's Fail-safe N test, Fannel diagram, width of Egger origin and Begg and Masumdar rank correlation coefficient showed no diffusion bias error.The results showed that love of club brand, team identity, social pride and entertainment, respectively, have the greatest effect among the independent variables on fan loyalty. It is suggested to pay serious attention to the managers' running clubs, developing followers’ centers, facilitating families’ attendance in clubs, and altimately needs assessment from followers. This leads to development and attraction of constant followers in professional league matches and will earn lots of income for the club.