Sport Management Studies

A comparative study of professional football refereeing in Iran with selected European countries

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

esmail dolatyari 1
Javad Shahlaei bagheri 2
sara keshkar 3
farzad ghafouri 3

1 PhD Student, Department of Sport Management, Faculty of physical education and sport sciences, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran.

2 Department of Sport Management, Faculty of physical education and sport sciences, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran

3 Department of Sport Management, Faculty of physical education and sport sciences, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran.

https://doi.org/10.22089/smrj.2024.16216.3985
Abstract
The aim of the present study was to investigate the refereeing of professional football in Iran with the selected players of the European continent. The research is qualitative with a descriptive nature and based on a comparative approach. The countries of Italy, England and Spain have been selected purposefully and on the basis of having a higher professional league level based on reliable sources. The data has been collected through library documents, searching in global networks, reports and scientific articles and in the form of Goorge Beredy‌ model (description, interpretation, neighbor and comparison). The results showed that Iran has the lowest And Spain has the highest salary payment to its referees, and except for Iran, all countries have full-time referees (monthly salary). All countries have set a minimum age to enter the field of arbitration. Iran has the least and Italy the most modern arbitration technology. Iran with 22 and Spain with 44 have the lowest and highest number of international referees and assistant referees, respectively. Iran has the least (one) and England has the most (5) professional leagues, and Iran has the highest number of referees (32) and assistant referees (55) with 16 teams. All countries, except Italy, have determined levels of refereeing for their referees. Taking advantage of the experience of the selected countries by managers and those involved in the field of football and refereeing is necessary in order to move in the direction of progress and professionalization of refereeing in the country's football.

Keywords

Comparative study
‌Professional football‌
Refereeing
‌ Selected countries
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Sport Management Studies
Volume 18, Issue 95
March and April 2026
Pages 93-67

  • Receive Date 08 January 2024
  • Revise Date 09 September 2024
  • Accept Date 06 October 2024

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