In Pune, where 84 soccer clubs vie for local honours, the Cup fever has not quite caught on. Perhaps the city is waiting for the event to get underway before it too gets into the act. And Adidas, the official sponsors of France '98, will vouch for this. It could not have opened to a more dismal account in the city.

The promotional stints of Adidas, which involved flooding the market with commemorative T-Shirts and caps bearing the official logo of France '98 and Footix the official mascot of the game, have fallen flat on their face.

And this is borne out by the fact that just 24 hours before the mega-event kicks off, only 15 caps have moved off the shelves from the two official outlets in the city! Even these sales have been restricted to the lower end of the range offered.

As S Surendra who owns an Adidas showroom in Pune Camp puts it, ``Maybe this is because of the lack of interest in the city. Moreover, the majority clientele walks out after only a glimpse of the unaffordable price tags.''But some people refuse to let this pessimism bog them down. Like those at the Hotel Blue Diamond. Months of planning have gone into putting up a month-long France'98 Festival.

The festival starts on June 10, coinciding with the kick-off, and will go on for the duration of the event. The venue is the Casabella Bar, the main attractions being the authentic French cuisine ``the like of which is not available anywhere in the city otherwise.'' Huge TV screens to view the World Cup in a pre-created ambience, complete with lucky coupons which could win you a trip to Paris, are all in place.

Hotel managing director Rajendra Kelshikar says they were inspired by the fact that this is ``the most spectacular, most competitive mega-event, of one of the most prestigious games in the world.'' He also observes a significant factor that ``this would be the last World Cup of the century!'' Only time will assess the success or failure of the idea.

Soccer is an event which thrives on mass participation. It's no fun seeing it in the seclusion of your own house. Keeping this in mind, various like minded people have attempted to recreate the atmosphere of Stade de France in Paris which would have 80,000 spectators whipping themselves into mass hysteria, where the teams are not really the criterion for support.

The same arrangement has been planned for Puneites by various mandals and die-hard fanatics in the heart of the city which include areas like Laxmi Road, Appa Balwant Chowk as well as the outskirts of Pimpri Camp.

At the centre of most of the talks is Doordarshan which has managed to rope in sole rights of telecast of 40 matches ``live'' and deferred telecast of 24 matches.

Even though some of the Puneites may cry over the poor picture quality there are others who acknowledge that the channel has at least not let down its viewers.

At a spot poll taken hours before filing this report, the city people heavily favoured the terminator led Ronaldo and company Brazil, as firm favourites to defend their title.

However most feel that the opener, which pits Brazil against Scotland, would turn out to be a one-sided fare, unlike Italia '90 where holders Argentina were shocked by Cameroon who went on to be known as the ``Indomitable Lions.''

Soccer may not be a major sport in the city, but the Puneites who generally talk about racing odds have placed their money on Brazil at 1-10.

Germany follows the defending champion with 1-5 while Holland are placed third in the order of merit.