The British people who took football to other parts of the world over a century ago would never have believed it could become the world's No 1 game.

Football historians found the game was once shunned in some countries due to nationalist sentiments. But it has proved unstoppable and swept the globe.

Even though FIFA, world football's governing body, cancelled the opening gala of the World Cup finals, which will kick off at this evening, the month-long tournament remains a focus of global attention.

More than 3 billion people are expected to watch the matches on TV, a figure that fully testifies to football's unmatched popularity.

But when it comes to football, many people believe that commercial forces have played a major part in making it such a global success story.

Indeed, these commercial forces, although sometimes the source of controversy, have evolved into an integral part of the game and played an indispensable role in making football ever more popular on this planet.

They contribute huge funds to the game and have benefited greatly from its increased popularity.

While bearing in mind the contribution of the commercial sponsorship, we must try every means to prevent this from exerting an unhealthy influence on the game.

In the commercial world, the best game is often the most profitable and also the potential prey of commercial interests.

The betting scandals that rocked the Italian league in the run-up to the World Cup are a timely reminder of that pressing danger.

The imprisonment of the German referee who took bribes to rig matches, along with the negated results of 11 Brazilian league matches for match-fixing late last year, has prompted FIFA to take harsher measures to prevent such wrongdoings at this World Cup.

Given the many controversial refereeing decisions at the 2002 World Cup, FIFA must work harder to ensure its referees to uphold fair play this time round.

Given that most of the world will be watching, we hope that this World Cup is a clean and orderly tournament.

(China Daily June 9, 2006)