Sponsors such as Budweiser, MasterCard and Sony have paid the tournament's organising body, Fifa, 546m for the privilege of associating their names with the event.

The television rights fetched another 480m.

French advertising giant Publicis estimates that worldwide advertising sales will get a boost of up to 1% or 3.2bn as advertisers raise their spend to target football fans.

The World Cup tide won't lift all boats, though.

Irish advertisers are unlikely to join in the World Cup jamboree with the same enthusiasm as their peers in other markets, as Ireland sit out the tournament.

The Thierry Henry goal that ended Ireland's hopes of qualifying last year was just as deflating for the Irish advertising industry as it was for football fans, according to Paul Moran, managing director of media buyer Mediaworks.

"That one goal cost Irish advertising in the region of 15m, " he said.

Had Brian Kerr's team made the cut, a host of commercial opportunities would have opened up for advertisers to take advantage of the opportunity to associate themselves with the feelgood factor around a national team heading to the tournament.

"I don't think it is outlandish to say that the incremental benefit for the advertising market would be 7m or 8m, " he said, adding that he would expect to have seen at least another 15m spent if Ireland were playing.

"There are brands that would want to be associated with Ireland and would fly the flag, " said Stuart Fogarty, director of advertising agency AFA O'Meara, singling out Aer Lingus as one obvious example of a company that might have chosen to reach a global audience.

Fogarty said that, in contrast to the 2002 World Cup, in which Ireland reached the second round before falling to Spain, his clients were not clamouring for advertising spots.

"You won't have a huge amount of activity from Irish brands. Instead, what you'll have is brands like Hewlett-Packard, Coke, Budweiser, " he said.

In that regard it is perhaps telling that during the 2002 tournament RTE's coverage was sponsored by Eircom. This time around the coverage is being co-sponsored by South Korean car maker Hyundai and US brewing giant Budweiser.

The loss of the patriotic advertising spend will be keenly felt in Montrose. RTE has the exclusive rights to televise the tournament in Ireland and, naturally, the absence of the national team from the proceedings will affect the money-spinning potential.

The World Cup is very much a television phenomenon. It attracts higher audiences than any other sporting event in the world . . .

the New York Times described it as the SuperBowl multiplied by an American presidential campaign for its soccer-illiterate readers. The World Cup final itself is expected to be the most-watched television broadcast on the planet; over 1.3 billion people watched the 2002 final.

In one sense the tournament has arrived at a perfect time for RTE. The state broadcaster is having a stand-out year on the advertising front. Mediaworks estimates that RTE's advertising revenue this year to date is 16% ahead of the same period in 2005.

In an average year, June and July, the start of the summer holiday season, are slow months for the broadcaster. Even without the boys in green, however, the World Cup will pull in strong audience figures for the time of year and will keep RTE's momentum going.

Dara Meaney, group advertising sales manager for RTE, indicated that the Mediaworks estimates are close to the mark. "We've had strong, double-digit growth this year so far, " he said. It was difficult to quantify the impact that televising the World Cup would have, but he said "June growth will be higher than for the first six months".

RTE has sold the tournament in "packages" of advertising time. One package, valued at 160,000 on the rate card sent to advertising agencies but subject to negotiation, entitles advertisers to a 30-second spot during each of the 52 matches in the tournament. The second package, priced at 80,000, entitles advertisers to a 30-second spot during all the 'key matches', including matches featuring big ratings winners such as England and Brazil and all the matches in the knockout stages of the competition.

With Ireland out of the tournament, the attention of many Irish fans will be on Sven Goran Eriksson's England team. The large support base for English Premiership teams, even if it won't necessarily translate into support for England, will at least ensure England matches are the biggest ratings winners.

Advertising slots during England matches will sell for a premium, according to Meaney.

"From a commercial point of view, RTE would be happy for England to go far, " he said.

While RTE is pleased with the level of interest from advertisers, there's no hiding the fact that the World Cup without the national team is a horse of a very different colour. "I think we were getting about twice the rate for Ireland games, " said Meaney. Nonetheless he said the advertising packages had been "well subscribed" and that the broadcaster was "very pleased with the uptake. . . We wouldn't expect to sell every single package. About half our air time in the World Cup is sold, " he said.

AFA O'Meara's Stuart Fogarty, however, said the fact that so much air time remained unsold, with the tournament due to start in two weeks, was a strong sign of just how difficult it is to sell the World Cup without Irish involvement.

"Once you have Ireland in a World Cup it makes all the difference in the world. If Ireland had been involved I'd have bought [advertising time] in January or February, " he said.

Fogarty contrasted the situation with the recent European Rugby Cup final won by Munster and televised on RTE. Thirty-second spots were selling for 12,000 and sold out shortly after Munster qualified. "The difficulty wasn't paying the 12,000, it was just getting in."

Is Munster a bigger draw than Brazil? When it comes to Irish advertisers, it seems it is.

BEER AND COSMETICS PITCHED AT WEALTHY YOUNG MEN

ADVERTISERS are always on the lookout for wealthy young men. According to John Holohan, information manager with the Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland (IAPI), football is the perfect advertising vehicle for many well-known brands. The World Cup is "a large opportunity for advertisers to get to what is probably the most dif"cult market to target: young, adult males", he said.

It should come as no surprise to learn that the brands that will be spending big in the coming months are primarily aimed at this demographic. Cosmetic brands such as Gillette, Nivea For Men, Lynx and L'Oreal are all gearing up for World Cup campaigns. Beer companies such as Budweiser, Heineken and Carlsberg, no strangers to fostering a close association with the beautiful game, have also been buying up billboards and air time in the lead-up to the tournament.

RTE's group sales manager Dara Meaney said the station had sold much of its space to a combination of telecoms companies, cosmetic brands, and beer and soft drink manufacturers.

Key World Cup sponsors such as sportswear manufacturers Nike and Adidas will also be hoping to maximise their association with the tournament. Nike (which sponsors the Brazil team) and Adidas (an of"cial tournament sponsor) have been ramping up advertising activity significantly in recent weeks and will continue to do so.

Andy Sharkey, managing director of Lifestyle Sports, said the two brands have been making so much noise that his company feels it's unnecessary to do any World Cup-related advertising.

"It's seen as a battle between the brands. They are spending big, big money. We do [display] windows. We will have a Nike and an Adidas World Cup window but our advertising will not be directly related to the World Cup, " he said.