by Sally Hardcastle BBC World Business Report

The football World Cup finals to be staged in Japan and Korea have generated a frenzy of commercial exploitation.

In the past, products endorsed by players and teams bore some relation to the game - but that is no longer the case.

We are accustomed to stars such as David Beckham promoting products but even the English national team coach, Sven Goran Eriksson, has been taking advantage of the occasion.

Although Mr Eriksson may be aging and balding, he apparently has enough glamour to be earning millions of dollars endorsing products.

Ambassador

Eriksson: considered intellectual, gentle and sophisticated

In the run-up to the World Cup, they range from pasta sauce to a classical music 3-CD boxed-set marketed by Naxos - called the Sven Goran Eriksson Collection.

Barry Holden, head of marketing for Naxos, said Swedish colleagues had informed him that Mr Eriksson was a fan of classical music.

"We came to the conclusion that when you have an opportunity and you are presented with a possible ambassador for this music to a wider audience, you must seize the opportunity," he said.

Mr Holden acknowledges that the popularity of the $20 set could disappear if England goes out of the World Cup in the first round.

But he assumes that by June the company will have made a return on its investment.

Struggling

It is very different in Africa however.

Senegal's Lions of Teranga have the support of the major Francophone African musician Youssou Ndour.

But despite the excitement it generates locally, the team has found it difficult to raise cash for the training and travel costs which follow qualification for the World Cup.

It is hard to persuade manufacturers of expensive football boots to promote products local fans cannot afford and even in Senegal a replica of the team's football shirts costs $50.

In Europe however, the endorsement bonanza is at its greedy height.

The millions being raked in by just one coach can be multiplied many, many times for anyone associated with those teams travelling to the Far East.