The concert, which aims to show to a global television audience of two billion, is being billed as the biggest of all time and will be the third by Jose Carreras, Placido Dominqo and Luciano Pavarotti for a soccer World Cup.

From beneath a massive arch on the Champs de Mars Park, the Spanish-Italian trio's classical repertoire, spiced with a few surprises as they render their own versions of the more popular hits, will be broadcast live to over 75 countries.

As they rehearsed in overcoats, hats and scarves on a chilly evening yesterday, their voices occasionally soared over the rooftops of the streets around the tower, wafting a breath of sweetness over the traffic jams.

Football is a common passion for the tenors, whose lofty arias have since 1990 been married with television images of thegame's moments of high skill and intense emotion. Their Los Angles World Cup concert in 1994 showed to 1.3 billion television viewers worldwide.

They all went to the 1990 and 1994 World Cup finals, and Carreras has said they were coming to Paris because ``we want to get good tickets for the final.''

There will be songs in six languages -- French, Italian English, German, Spanish and Portuguese -- to tweak as many sentimental strings as possible.