Strategic assessment of sports diplomacy in developing the country's sports and increasing the international reputation of the national brand

Today sports have become an important aspect of the political influence of governments. Sports is a tool for international affairs that countries can use to strengthen relations around the world. In terms of the nature of the research, the present research is exploratory-applied; The manner and method of research, qualitative; The ruling paradigm of research is interpretive; And the method of data analysis is Glazer's unstructured data theory foundation and the source of data collection includes interviews. The statistical community consists of managers and experts who have scientific expertise in the field of sports management in the field of national branding through sports. To conduct an in-depth and semi-structured interview, managers, sports management experts of the country have been selected by purposeful sampling and then expressed their opinions and views on the interview questions. In the present study, the opinions of 12 people were collected until reaching theoretical saturation. The reliability of the interviews was obtained using the intra-subject agreement study method of 0.80. For data analysis, the method of continuous comparison was used during three stages of open, central and selective coding by Max Kyoda software version 2018. 51 codes were obtained in the open coding phase and 9 axes were obtained in the axial coding, and finally, sports depoliticization, religious and religious values, international interactions, government support, sports culture, and the foundation of sports technology excellence were identified. The results of the research showed that in order to achieve the development of sports and the country and increase the international reputation of the national brand, there is a need for requirements, which are part of the requirements related to the identified factors, and the country's sports managers should take effective steps in this field. The use of sports elites with different political tendencies, the absence of racial or ethnic hatred, the use of a rich civilization, strengthening the world's sports public opinion, strengthening sports diplomacy with the world, strengthening sports tourism in Iran, developing international sports interactions, revising cumbersome laws for The development of sports, the assessment of sports needs and benefits is suggested.

"diplomacy""International interactions"National brand"