CONCACAF: The Road to Qatar

Jan 26, 2021 - 5 min read

Key Takeaways

• Concacaf Qualifiers: The Road to Qatar

• Bitso: Mexico’s newest sponsor

• The Economic impact of not qualifying for the World Cup.

The Concacaf qualifiers are back today with exciting games between the Concacaf nations. On Thursday, four exciting games await us: Mexico vs. Jamaica, United States vs. El Salvador, Honduras vs. Canada, and Costa Rica vs. Panama. Mexico is currently in the 3rd position of the table. Out of their five last games, they have won 2, lost 2, and tied 1. The United States National Team currently sits in the 2nd position of the table; they have won 3 of their last five games and have lost only 1. Canada has had a great run in these qualifiers; they are currently in the 1st position of the table, surpassing the two biggest teams in Concacaf, the US and Mexico.

Mexico’s newest sponsor

The Mexican National Team has recently announced their newest sponsor, the Mexican cryptocurrency platform called Bitso. Bitso’s CEO Daniel Vogel stated that they are proud and honored to become an official sponsor of the Mexican National team. According to their CEO, Bitso currently has 3.7 million active users throughout Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and Brazil. This partnership is not the first soccer partnership for Bitso; they also sponsor the Mexican soccer team Tigres and the Brazilian soccer team Sao Paulo. 

The United States and Mexico national teams’ sponsors
The United States national team has various sponsors, including Nike, Volkswagen, Allstate, Visa, AT&T, and more. The same goes for the Mexican national team; their sponsors include Adidas, Coca-Cola, Aeromexico, Corona, Samsung, and more. A lot of these sponsors depend on how each team is performing. For example, many brands and companies were affected when the U.S did not qualify for the 2018 World Cup.

Consequences after the U.S National Team failure in 2018

The U.S failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup also hit negatively off the field, with many markets, media companies, and sponsors being affected. According to the Washington Post, the USSF, the United States Soccer Federation, had prepared a massive buildup for the World Cup. Training camps, marketing campaigns, matches, friendlies, and many other plans were canceled due to the U.S failing to qualify. Many of these different activities also included the participation of the U.S's various sponsors. Even though many of their sponsors were into long-term deals, the absence of the U.S in that World Cup made it difficult for them to attract new sponsors. 

Steve Goff for the Washington Post stated that FIFA was also affected by the U.S being knocked out for that World Cup as the American market is among one of the most important markets for the organization. In addition, in the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, thousands of U.S. fans traveled to those host countries.

Fox Sports also took a big hit with the U.S national team's failure. They had the tv rights for the World Cup that year. Although the tournament attracted the audience and brought good ratings, they could have been better if the U.S had qualified. Fox Sports President Eric Shanks stated on Sports Illustrated that year, "for us; it's a different tournament if the U.S. isn't it." The peak of Fox Sports during the 2018 World Cup final was at 15 million viewers. Fox Sports will have the TV rights for the 2022 Qatar World Cup. 

The importance of qualifying to the World Cup

“Every National Team has the responsibility to give their all and succeed in the qualifiers, but for teams like Mexico and the U.S, as they are considered the best on CONCACAF and always have the bigger expectations, they are always the most negatively criticized and suffer the bigger repercussions if they fail to do so. If Mexico doesn’t qualify this will be a disaster for our region and internationally for FIFA” commented Dario Brignole. Qualifying for a World Cup brings many benefits both on and off the field and as you can see from the example of the U.S in 2018, the team and fans are not the only ones affected by not going to the World Cup, failing to qualify would also affect a lot of companies, markets, and organizations that are tied into the team in any way such as being a sponsor or partner. 

For Mexico not qualifying for the Qatar World Cup would bring lots of negative outcomes, as big and very similar to the ones the U.S suffered back in 2018. In the 2018 Russia World Cup, Mexico was the national team that had the highest level of fan attendance; a total of 44 thousand Mexican fans traveled to Russia to support their team, Mexican fans were also the second group of fans that spent the most money on the Russia World Cup with an impressive number of USD 1.2 million spent; the only fans that surpassed them were the Russians with USD 8.2 million; this shows how much Mexican fans support their team both on and off the pitch.

Sponsors are always expecting the Mexican national team to succeed as they gain lots benefits from them, for example, according to El Economista, for the period of four years of Russia, between Adidas and Movistar (two of Mexico’s sponsors) a total of at least USD 150,000 were gained from the team. Adidas is one of Mexico’s sponsors that always get greatly benefited from the team, for instance in 2014, Mexico’s jersey was the 4th most sold by Adidas; they sold more than 1 million Mexican jerseys. Organizations such as the “Consejo de Promoción Turística de México” or in English the Mexico Tourism Promotion Council, through the Mexico brand, grant the Mexican Federation USD 1.5 million annually as part of their sponsorship agreement. All of these show how important it is for Mexico to qualify for the World Cup for the team, the fans, and all the various companies and organizations that tied themselves with the Mexican national team; that is why we are sure that Mexico and all the other CONCACAF teams will give their best in this week's upcoming matches as we are reaching the final stage of the CONCACAF qualifiers.