Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 Master's student of Sports Management, Department of Sports Management, Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Sciences, Allameh Tabatabai University, Tehran, Iran
2 PhD Student of Sports Management, Department of Sports Management and Movement Behavior, Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Sciences, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran.
3 Phd of Sports Management, Department of Sports Management, Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Sciences, Allameh Tabatabai University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
This study aimed to analyze the sentiments of football fans to understand their reactions to sponsorship deals in Iranian football. The statistical population for this study comprised all text-based comments on the sponsorship announcement posts from the official Instagram pages of Esteghlal FC and Rightel. Sentiment analysis was employed as the research method. Subsequently, the Python programming language and the TextBlob library were utilized to conduct the analysis. The results revealed that the average polarity of comments in posts associated with Esteghlal FC and Rightel were +0.321 and +0.445, respectively, indicating a positive outlook among fans towards the sponsorship. Additionally, the average subjectivity in the posts for Esteghlal FC and Rightel were +0.721 and +0.699, respectively, suggesting a tendency for the views to reflect personal sentiments and perceptions. The findings indicate that Rightel’s sponsorship deal with Esteghlal FC is largely perceived positively by fans, implying that strategic sponsorship in sports can facilitate effective communication with supporters. These results may assist clubs and sponsors in utilizing sentiment analysis to accurately gauge fan perspectives and enhance positive interactions.
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