THE ENTERTAINERS

While France opted for creative training, Slovenia coach Matjaz Kek was pondering creative play.

"As far as I am concerned, we can lose all three group matches as long as we play entertaining football to please the crowds and get them on their feet," he told Slovenia's Ekipa website (www.ekipa.org).

There will be plenty of fans to entertain in South Africa, with world soccer's governing body FIFA saying the number of seats available had jumped by 100,000 to more than three million and 97 percent of those will be sold.

"We are getting closer and closer to the best World Cup ever in terms of ticketing which was USA in 1994," FIFA Secretary-General Jerome Valcke told a news conference.

Whether it is the best World Cup remains to be seen but it could well be the noisiest after organisers said there would be no curbing of the raucous vuvuzela fan trumpets despite earlier concerns their din could drown out emergency announcements.

The trumpets sound like a herd of charging elephants but after testing noise levels at the Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg when it was almost full they are here to stay.