Today, sports are mostly used as a tool for diplomacy, ideology, nation-building 
and access to the international arena and gaining commercial benefits. The 
increasing influence of international sports organizations and major sports events 
such as the Olympic Games and the World Cup have left a deep impact on the 
development of the concept of diplomacy. Is. The purpose of the current research 
is to identify the factors that explain the future of sports diplomacy in the Islamic 
Republic of Iran, the research method is mixed exploratory (text review - qualitative 
- validation), the statistical population in three stages of the research, respectively, 
includes 1. Written documents related to the subject, including articles and 
researches scientific, existing guidelines and documents, 2. experts and specialists 
in sports management and diplomacy and sports elites and 3. organizational experts 
and faculty members of related disciplines. In the text review section, 32 documents 
(texts) were available using the sampling method. In the qualitative section, using 
the snowball method, in-depth interviews were conducted with 13 experts until 
theoretical saturation was reached, and in the validation section, 20 experts were 
The semi-structured and structured checklist has been conducted in three rounds. 
To determine the validity and reliability in the qualitative stage, the necessary 
checks including acceptability (expert review) and confirmability (re-review by 
experts) were used, and in the validation stage, review and review of the survey 
were used. Qualitative data were analyzed with content analysis technique with 
open, central and selective coding in Atlas software and validation data with Delphi 
technique in SPSS software. The results of the research indicated that the factors 
that explain the future of sports diplomacy in the Islamic Republic of Iran in 8 
dimensions and 41 components are as follows: branding (branding and 
accreditation, goodwill and pride, international prestige, trade and sports tourism), 
requirements and structure (religious requirements and belief, cultural and social 
requirements, proper structure, media requirements), development of resources 
(social and cultural development, hardware and infrastructure, development of 
human capital, improvement of capabilities and capacities), strategies (cultural and 
social strategies, macro management measures, The use of sports elites, optimal 
mining, coordination of sports and public diplomacy, foreign relations strategies,
financial measures, obtaining international seats), interactions and communications 
(holding and hosting competitions, management and media power, interaction with 
the world, international relations, communication and synergy of related 
institutions), politics and laws (domestic policies, development policy, 
development of soft power with sports, foreign policy, review of inefficient 
procedures and methods), environmental factors (peace, friendship and security, 
combating isolation and political sanctions) economic, social changes with sports, 
political currents inside and outside , meritocracy) and mediating factors (the 
country's sports position, national unity and integration, improvement of the 
country's image, knowledge-oriented, knowledgeable and efficient managers, 
teamwork and sports participation).