Analysis and relationship between financing methods and strategic performance of Iraq football clubs

Today, the key to the success of an organization and society is earning money for its survival. Without a secure income, society and various organizations will be dissolved and destroyed and cannot survive in a competitive environment. Income is a financial source that is injected into an organization in different ways and the organization can use it to produce goods and services. Reliable and stable income can provide the necessary facilities to meet the costs and expenses of organizations. In fact, income and financial resources are known as the driving force of sports organizations, clubs and leagues. Generating income is necessary for the development, effective planning and maintaining these organizations' independence. Research has shown that financial resources are vital for non-profit organizations such as sports federations and clubs. Non-profit sports organizations need financial support from the government and private institutions, but they prefer to organize sports activities independently (Iskandar et al, 2019). Every sports organization needs financial support to advance its programs and projects. These supports help the sports organization reach its goals (Solntsev, 2021). An important part of these resources is provided by the government. Other forms of income can be obtained from international organizations, marketing income, membership fees and donations. Nowadays, to introduce their company's name and provide their financial resources, many sports organizations refer to the companies which are interested in volunteering. In addition, clubs are capable of generating value and their revenue structure for buying and selling players, sales of secondary products (shirts, sports equipment, etc.), fan sponsorship, television rights, ticket sales and advertising are such that they can generate financial resources (Ljumović et al, 2022). Financing is one of the important issues in the field of financial management. Over the years, various methods have been developed in this field, the existence of various financial instruments can increase market efficiency and optimal allocation of resources (Dróżdż, 2021). Today, many professional clubs are well capable of playing an important role in the strategic performance of countries. Furthermore, the development and sustainable performance and especially the acquisition of financial resources and stable income have been given a lot of attention in today's football. The lack of balance and non-realization of sustainable incomes in different organizations of the football industry, such as clubs and different leagues, have been confirmed by various studies and reports from reputable institutions (Dunbar & Middleton, 2022).Meanwhile, managers of clubs and economic enterprises can play an essential role in strategic performance.  Upon accepting the responsibility of financing, financial managers of companies or clubs must know the financial markets and financing methods in order to consider the most economical way of financing by using appropriate financial tools in the financial markets.Therefore, considering the importance of   income generation for clubs and the issue of financing development of football clubs , and  due to the fact that  the relationship between football clubs' financing methods and their strategic performance has not been discussed so far , this scientific challenge seems to strongly require regular, codified and organized scientific research. It is clear that by carrying out such researches, suggestions can be given to governments and non-government policy makers so that they can take basic steps to develop the financing of football clubs and the ways to overcome the strategic performance of their organizations with research-based decisions and establish a financially successful break - even point in their clubs. With this approach, the researchers in this study intend to answer the following question:  what are the financing methods and their relationship with the strategic performance of Iraq football clubs? This research is descriptive and correlational in terms of purpose and application. Its statistical population includes a selection of physical education professors of Iraq higher education institutions, managers and members of the physical education faculty of the Ministry of Science, coaches and referees and expert football experts, managers of public and private institutions active in the field of Iraq clubs who specialize in sports activities, especially football including 153 people who were selected as samples. The tools used in the current research include the researcher-made questionnaire and the standard strategic performance questionnaire of Slater et al. (2010). After confirming the validity of the questionnaires, the reliability of the questionnaires was obtained using Cronbach's alpha method, the financing questionnaire (0.89), and the strategic performance questionnaire (0.82). The data analysis of this research was done in the descriptive part by means of percentage frequency, average and standard deviation and in the inferential part including Pearson's correlation coefficient and regression tests using SPSS22 software. The results after the analysis showed that the income from holding competitions, sponsorship and commercial income, broadcast rights and infrastructure, and monetary and financial markets can significantly predict the strategic performance of Iraq football clubs. Based on the findings of the research and since earning more money can significantly predict the strategic performance of Iraq football clubs, it is suggested to increase the size of the sports market in Iraq by increasing the participation of economic enterprises, supporting large companies and financial sponsors, advertising and promoting products, goods   and services, so that clubs can go through the commercialization process more easily. On the other hand, it seems that for the successful financing and commercialization of football clubs, a series of technical, economic and financial activities should be carried out in the light of the commercial registration of clubs as a commercial enterprise, so that clubs become institutions with a legal aspect and follow the rules of business. As a result, if the mechanism is well defined, clubs can achieve better financial success as also mentioned by other researchers (Szymanski & Weimar, 2019). They can continue to achieve sports success, and the club's sports success will also guarantee financial success and cause dynamism in clubs.