Sport Sciences Research Institute Sport Management Studies 2538-3213 12 63 2020 11 21 The Reasons, Obstacles and Consequences of Professionalization in Selection of Sport Federations of Iran The Reasons, Obstacles and Consequences of Professionalization in Selection of Sport Federations of Iran 43 68 2019 10.22089/smrj.2020.8229.2817 FA Hesham Rostami Ph.D. Student of Sport Management, Department of Physical Education and Sport Science, University of Guilan Shahram Shafiee Assistant Professor of Sport Management, Department of Physical Education and Sport Science, University of Guialn 0000-0002-8208-0846 Mehrali Hemati Nejhad Professor of Sport Management, Department of Physical Education and Sport Science, University of Guialn 0000-0001-6999-9797 Rahim Ramezani Nejad Professor of Sport Management, Department of Physical Education and Sport Science, University of Guialn Journal Article 2019 12 16 When discussing the concept of professionalization in sports, the payments to the athletes may be of the most immediate pictures which may appear in people’s minds, but the actual and deeper meaning of the concept of professionalization differs than that of its everyday perception. The present study aims at identifying the reasons, obstacles and consequences of professionalization in selection of sport federations of Iran. The data presented here has been collected applying two-step Delphi method from semi-structured interviews with experts on professionalization of sports and subsequently analyzed applying hermeneutic-circle approach. Based on the results of the study, five themes, 120 primary codes, 38 sub-stratums and 15 stratums were recognized for the reasons, obstacles and consequences of professionalization of sports organizations. Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that identifying the reasons, obstacles and consequences of professionalization can pay a great contribution to the sports federations of Iran in order to make money, also the analysis of the exterior and interior of sports federations and identifying the potentials of professionalization in their context can expedite the process of professionalization and improvement of sports federations. When discussing the concept of professionalization in sports, the payments to the athletes may be of the most immediate pictures which may appear in people’s minds, but the actual and deeper meaning of the concept of professionalization differs than that of its everyday perception. The present study aims at identifying the reasons, obstacles and consequences of professionalization in selection of sport federations of Iran. The data presented here has been collected applying two-step Delphi method from semi-structured interviews with experts on professionalization of sports and subsequently analyzed applying hermeneutic-circle approach. Based on the results of the study, five themes, 120 primary codes, 38 sub-stratums and 15 stratums were recognized for the reasons, obstacles and consequences of professionalization of sports organizations. Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that identifying the reasons, obstacles and consequences of professionalization can pay a great contribution to the sports federations of Iran in order to make money, also the analysis of the exterior and interior of sports federations and identifying the potentials of professionalization in their context can expedite the process of professionalization and improvement of sports federations. https://smrj.ssrc.ac.ir/article_2019_ea6b2efbdd4255a9f1b3bbc6399b58f4.pdf