World Cup Winners Struggle to Organize Friendly Matches Even with Back-to-Back Victories over Germany Why Japan’s Moriyasu Japan is Not Flooded with Offers

A former JFA marketing manager reveals how Japan’s national team has been able to play against powerful nations.

A former JFA official in charge of marketing revealed, “The Japanese national team has been supported by the Kirin Group since 1978, and the main expenses for domestic matchmaking have been covered by them. Thanks to their support, we are now able to invite foreign teams to Japan and spend 200 to 300 million yen in total for one match. We prepare a fee ranging from 50 to 100 million yen, depending on the ability of the invited country. If that is not enough, we will convince our opponents in an arranged manner, such as tournament prize money,” he said.

How much did it cost to invite the world-class Brazilian team to Japan last June?

I heard that the guarantee alone was 300 million yen. Nowadays, the total cost of inviting a powerful country to Japan is probably close to 1 billion yen. The JFA’s main source of income from hosting friendly matches is from broadcasting rights fees for TV and distribution. Admission fee revenue is also important, and setting the fee is a key point. If a national team match attracts more than 30,000 spectators, it is not a loss-making event even now,” said a reporter in charge of soccer.

Japan, which is said to be a backward country in terms of soccer, has been able to arrange matches with powerful countries mostly by “taking money out of the country. That is why, with the historic victory over Germany, Japan envisioned a new way to receive offers and invitations from powerful countries, and thought that this would become a new source of income.

First of all, there is the scheduling problem of the other country that wants to offer to play against us. The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) started the Nations League in 2006. The Confederation of African Football (CAF) is also expanding its continental championships to strengthen national teams.

This is a headache for the JFA,” said a reporter in charge of soccer.

Furthermore, due to the COVID-19 crisis, the national team’s revenues for the two years until 2010 had reached a ceiling, and the JFA sold its own building (the JFA House) as a desperate measure. Even so, the JFA announced a loss of approximately 4.88 billion yen for the fiscal year ’22 (January 1-December 31). The JFA does not have the “stamina” to pay the kind of high fees that would make a powerful country jump at the chance to play for them.

The JFA’s marketing director also expressed his sincere feelings.

A JFA marketing manager expressed his sincere opinion: “It has been a long-standing concern of the JFA to get a new form of national team competition off the ground and to make it a pillar of revenue. The ideal would be for Moriyasu Japan to receive invitations from powerful foreign countries and to be able to consistently earn high fees.

In October, Moriyasu Japan will play friendly matches in Japan (Canada on October 13 and Tunisia on October 17) in preparation for the second round of Asian qualifying matches that will begin in November. The JFA has made offers to these two countries for these two matches as well, and for the match against Canada on October 13, Mizuho Bank, a sponsor of the JFA, will be a special sponsor instead of the Kirin Group, which has supported the national team for many years. This shows the bitterness of not being able to rely solely on the Kirin Group. Moriyasu Japan, which has beaten Germany twice in just 10 months, is likely to continue to face great difficulties in matchmaking for friendly matches.