THE greatest sporting show on earth kicks-off tomorrow with the field looking well and truly open.

Just as in 1994 when the World Cup finals tournament left the confines of Europe and South America for the first time, the first tournament to be played is Asia looks anything but a foregone conclusion.

Certainly France and Argentina enter the fray as favourites, but Brazil, Italy and, to a lesser extent, Spain and Portugal all appear to be in with a good chance.

England too will fancy their chances, but the opening game on Sunday against Sweden could pretty much decide whether Sven-Goran Eriksson's men reach the second round.

A defeat could spell trouble for England because Argentina will be eager to remove a major threat from the tournament as soon as they possibly can and Nigeria are no pushovers.

The Eagles are being written off by many pundits, but the English camp are hopefully ignoring such reports.

The reasoning is that a rift in the Nigerian squad will mean that they will under perform.

But just where does this idea that if players are not getting on off the field they will fail to do the business on it gain any credence.

The West Germans spent the 1970s going to one final after another as they dominated the World Cup and European Championships, yet two of their key men - skipper Franz Beckenbauer and left-back Paul Breitner - barely spoke to each other throughout the decade.

The mutual loathing of Der Kaiser and the man who inspired the cartoon character Hair in the Hair Bear Bunch was never allowed to upset what happened on the field - so why should Nigeria be any different.

Of the outsiders the home nations, Japan and South Korea, may prove surprise packages as neither are in particularly strong squads and once in the knockout stages they will benefit from passionate support and being more acclimatised than either European or South American opponents.

Also get a couple of quid on Senegal for tomorrow's clash with reigning champions France.

The majority of Senegalese squad play in France and they are capable of matching Cameroon's opening day success over Argentina in 1990.

But I predict that the winners will be European and that they will wear blue shirts.

Italy are the side that I feel will lift the trophy.

They have the classiest defence in Fabio Cannavaro, Alessandro Nesta and Paolo Maldini, and potential match-winners in Francesco Totti, Christian Vieri, Pippo Inzaghi and Alessandro Del Piero. Their only failing is a marginally unimaginative midfield.