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The main goal of the research was to Identification of strategic elements of sports diplomacy based on soft power in expanding Iran's international relations with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. In the first step, by examining the theoretical foundations and research literature, a questionnaire related to the foundation's data theory was designed in order to extract the components of the strategic model of sports diplomacy in facilitating Iran's international relations with the countries of Qatar and the UAE, and information was collected by conducting 16 interviews with experts in this industry. In order to test the model, the community of experts active in the sports industry was used. The following categories of Media policy, Sports cultural diplomacy; Sports economic and commercial diplomacy; Sports public diplomacy; Sports platform diplomacy; Sports political diplomacy and Strategic sports diplomacy were used to design the model. For testing the relationships, Spearman's correlation test method, structural equation model and regression were performed on the data. Results indicate that economic diplomacy, strategic diplomacy and political diplomacy constitute the basis of the model.

Purpose: The current research aimed to identify the opportunities of hosting mega sports events (case study: Qatar). Methods and Materials: interpretive paradigm, qualitative approach, and foundational data theorizing strategy were utilized with an emergent or Glazerian approach. The research participants were experts in sports events, such as sports managers, sports management professors, sports experts, and experienced athletes participating in international events. The theoretical sampling method was purposeful, and the persons were consciously selected. The semi-structured interview instrument collected the most important and in-depth information by referring to them. The criterion was the realization of theoretical saturation, which was finally conducted in 14 semi-structured interviews. Interpretive analysis using actual coding and theoretical coding was applied to analyze the content of the interviews. The reliability of the interviews was achieved through reviewing and modifying the findings and confirming the coding of each interview by the interviewee. The reliability of the interviews was confirmed by exploiting process audit and intra-subject agreement of 72%. Findings: 48 opportunities were identified in hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar in 6 categories: "political" with six factors, "economic" with 8, "socio-cultural" with 9, "sports industry" with 8, "Infrastructure and services" with 12 and "environment" with 4. Conclusion: By examining the opportunities of holding the mega event of the World Cup in Qatar, it is suggested to the sports administrators of the countries to host sports events to be seen on the world stage and to give international prestige to their count