Background. Sports brand love refers to the degree of passionate emotional attachment consumers feel towards a sports team. Brand able to be more competitive by establishing the strong brand love of the customers as well as brand identity and brand trust. Objectives. The purpose of this research is to present a model of the role of brand trust on brand identity through the mediating role of brand love among fans of Futsal premier league clubs. Methods. The present study is a descriptive-correlative research in compliance with existing standard case studies. The population of this research comprised of all fans of the Farsh Ara Mashhad club, among which 295 were selected according to the temporal and spatial domains of the study as the sample, utilizing simple random sampling method. In order to achieve the research goals, the moderated Brand Identity Questionnaire made by Meal and Ashforth (1992), Albert's Brand Love Questionnaire, 2010, and Ballester Brand Trust Questionnaire (2004) were used. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics (structural equation modeling and path analysis) were used for data analysis at a significant level recorded as 0.05. Result. According to the value of the coefficient path between brand trust and brand identity recorded as 0.47, which is positive and the value of the t-statistics correspondence obtained as 2.09, with 95% confidence, the coefficient path at the error level recorded as 0.05 is significant. Furthermore, a significant relationship between brand trust and brand identity was confirmed and also according to the main hypothesis of the research, the path coefficient of the indirect relationship of brand trust, through the mediating variable of brand love on brand identity with the value 0.53 was also calculated and the main hypothesis of the research was confirmed. Conclusion. In general, investing on brand trust on behalf of the Futsal premier league clubs (especially Farsh Ara club) and in the following plan to increase the admiration of fans in creating and developing a brand identity is one of the significant results mentioned in this research.

Background. Sport spectators are an essential part of the professional sport landscape. Spectators are important economically, because they generate revenue through ticket and concession sales, and provide ambience for broadcast televisions. Problematically, spectators' attendance is declining in many professional leagues throughout the world. Objectives. The current study aimed at identifying factors affecting spectators' attendance in the Iranian Football League. Methods. Initial data were collected using semi-structured interviews with 20 participants, with expertise in the Iranian Football League. Using Q Methodology, 50 Q-expressions were sorted by the participants. Then, Q-factor analysis was performed. Results. The study identified seven broad factors: 1) Lack of desirable access and transportation services to/from the stadiums; 2) Defective implementation of strategic plans in federations and clubs; 3) The impact of low-quality plays and the superiority of TV services to stadium ones; 4) Inappropriate services in stadiums; 5) Inappropriate stadium atmosphere; 6) Economic problems of spectators; and, 7) Paying more attention to margins by media from the viewpoint of critics. Conclusions. Football officials can increase the number of spectators in stadiums by systematically removing these damages from the Iranian football body, which may solve many other problems as well.

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Background. Today, management and development of sports brands are not only limited to sports goods, teams and leagues, but also recognized by professional and elite athletes. Objectives. So, the purpose of the present study is to analyze awareness of the components of personal brand image of male and female national team athletes and Taekwondo elite players of Iran. Methods. This study is applied and descriptive-analytical in terms of the purpose, and survey in terms of methodology. The statistical population of this study included all Iranian elite male players with a history of attending national teams. The sample size was considered as population by census and finally 150 persons formed the final sample of the study. The standard questionnaire of personal brand image of Safar et al. (2016) was used for data collection. The validity of the tool was confirmed by sport management experts and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha of 0.87. Results. The descriptive and inferential statistics (second-order factor analysis) at the significant level of 0.05 were used to analyze the data. The results showed that among the factors that constitute the brand image, skill and style of competition had the most influence. The results also showed that the knowledge of Taekwondo elite about the components of personal brand image is at a desired level. Conclusion. According to the results, careful consideration and understanding of moral factors, skills and consulting with sports marketing and branding specialists are among the cases suggested for forming and developing a desired personal brand image for Taekwondo national and elite players.

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