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Soccer World Cup: How much will the U.S and Mexico get paid for a pre-World Cup friendly?

Sports marketers and agents are very busy after the World Cup Draw in Costa do Sauipe (Brazil, Bahia). Now is the time to arrange and market pre-World Cup friendly matches. Portada talked to Mevy Pierre Azaria, CEO of MCI Sport, a soccer match agent. How much does Brazil get paid for a friendly match appearance, how much do Mexico, the U.S. or Honduras get paid? Find out here.

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Sports marketers and agents  are very busy after the World Cup Finals Draw Friday in Costa do Sauipe (Brazil, Bahia).  Mexico will play in Group A with Brazil, Croatia and Cameroun. The United States will be part of Group G with Germany, Portugal and Ghana. Now is the time to arrange and market pre-World Cup friendly matches. Portada talked to Mevy Pierre Azaria, CEO of MCI Sport, one of the world’s most sought after soccer match agents. How much does Brazil get paid for a friendly match appearance, how much do Mexico or Honduras get paid? Find out below. 

sorteo.fifaThe 32 teams participating in the 2014 Soccer World Cup were assigned to 8 different groups in the draw that took place in Costa do Sauipe (Bahia, Brazil).  “The situation is very simple. All the teams have a draw with 3 opponents. Each of a group’s teams has a different geographical profile: Europe, Africa, South America and Asia (including Oceania),” Mevy Pierre Azaria, CEO of MCI Sport tells Portada. In order to prepare for the World Cup and play with opponents that are similar to the ones they will face in their group, the teams are now looking for suitable opponents for their pre-World Cup friendly matches.

Now that the draw results are out, agents such as Mevy Pierre Azaria will organize as many friendly matches as possible before the World Cup starts on June 12, 2014 in order to generate as much revenue for them in addition to the practice opportunity.


SoccerFifa ( Fédération Internationale de Football Association) has strict regulations about when  pre-World Cup friendlies can be played. One match can be played on March 5, 2014. The remaining matches can be played during the May 26-June 10, 2014 timeframe.  On May 26 all national team players will be released from the soccer clubs to the national teams. Mexico, will play 6 matches, of which 5 will be played in the United States (marketed by SUM – Soccer United Marketing), the sixth one will be played in Mexico. Mexico will now be looking for teams that are similar to its opponents in Group A (Brazil, Croatia and Cameroun). Soccer United Marketing will likely look for African, South American and European teams with a similar profile. Possible opponents could be Argentina (Brazil proxy), Cameron, Ghana or Nigeria (Cameroun proxy) and Serbia or Bosnia-Herzegowina (Croatia proxy).

How much do teams get paid for pre-World Cup friendlies?

National soccer teams get paid a fee for playing friendlies. The so-called appearance fee is a function of the team’s history, its current moment (e.g. France currently is paid an appearance fee of approximately US $1 million, but in times it was World Champion and  Zinedine Zidane played the few was US$2 million), as well as the demographics of where the team plays. For example, Mexico matches in the United States have high fees due to the fact that most Hispanics are of Mexican origin and love soccer, says Mevy Pierre Azaria. “In fact, no other country has an exclusive contract with minimum appearances such as Mexico has with Soccer United Marketing (SUM),” he adds. Below is a table with an approximate amount of fees paid.

Spain gets paid 20 more times than Honduras

National Team

Appearance Fee (Aprox. in US $ millions)

Spain

2

Brazil

2

Argentina

2

Germany

2

France

1

Mexico (abroad except in the U.S.)

0.3

U.S.

0.2

Honduras

0.1

Guatemala

0.1

Honduras

0.1

El Salvador

0.1

Note: Teams have all the local costs covered. This includes hotel, food and local transport for a delegation of up to 50 persons.  Plane fares are deducted from the appearance fee with the exception of European teams where they are included in local costs. * Mexico matches in the U.S. are valued much higher.
Source:  Mevy Pierre Azaria

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