The purpose of the research is to identify the drivers affecting the success of strategic policies in football clubs. This research is applied-developmental in terms of purpose and descriptive-survey in terms of research type. The statistical population of the qualitative phase is 10 people from the managers of the federation and provincial football boards and university professors active in the football field, who were selected by purposive and snowball sampling. The quantitative phase's statistical population is all football club managers in Tehran, who were selected as a sample using the Gpower method using the available sampling method. The tools for collecting information in the qualitative phase are interviewing experts and a questionnaire for paired comparisons, and in the quantitative phase, a questionnaire for paired comparisons is used. The systematic coding method was used to analyze the qualitative data, and in the quantitative phase, the MICMAC pairwise comparison method was used.

According to the findings, the drivers affecting the success of strategic policies in football clubs include 5 main factors of key stakeholders, sports infrastructure, factors relating to athletes, strategic factors and international events, and 25 secondary factors. Also, holding international conferences, using educated coaches and managers, allocating budgets, increasing hall equipment, attending international tournaments, scheduling affairs, continuous monitoring, and financial support for athletes are among the most important factors.

From a practical perspective, the results provide valuable insights for football club managers, sports policymakers, federations, and football boards, facilitating the enhancement of strategic policy planning and implementation in this field.