Football Fans: Investigating the Relationship Between Fan Motivation and Aggressive Behaviours

Today, economic and social profitability in addition to other factors that benefit audiences and fans of the sports industry, especially football, is unthinkable. However, violence and aggres-sion in the sport may make sports culture difficult and can reduce the profitability of fans for the sports industry. The purpose of this study was to investigate the motivations of the Iranian Premier League football teams’ fans and the relevance of different aspects of violence to the fan motivations. Methods: The research method is descriptive-correlational. Data were collected in the field. The study population consisted of 389 fandoms of Iranian Premier League clubs. The research instrument was the standard questionnaire of fan motivation (Funk et al., 2012) (α = 0.87) and aggression (Rocca & Vogl-Bauer, 1999) (α = 0.81). Descriptive and inferential statistics including a one-sample t-test, Pearson correlation, and structural equation modelling test were used to analyze the data. All statistical analyses were performed us-ing SPSS and Amos 24 software. Results: The results showed that the level of fandom and aggression in the sample was high. A positive and significant relationship be-tween these variables was observed. These results can act as a guide for fandom and team leaders as well as tournament managers be-cause as a result of the greater recognition of this great community, there will be ways to control and make the most of their potential. Conclusion: A useful and effective solution is to bring cultural-sports clubs closer to their fans so that they can have a positive im-pact on their fans' behaviour by using cultural models and programs and using social psychologists.