Great Britain will learn their Olympic football fate later today with organisers confident the draw at Wembley Stadium will help shift a large proportion of the 1.5million tickets that remain unsold.
Whilst football is one of the oldest established sports in the Olympics, there is no recent tradition of the Games tournament within the United Kingdom.
"The draw is critical to our next push in getting those tickets into the hands of the football loving public in the UK and other parts of the world," David Luckes, sporting director of LOCOG said. "As yet, we don't know which teams are playing where, or the matches they will be participating in."
He added: "The fact we have already sold a million is a very good position and we are confident we can sell remainder once the draw takes place."
Sir Alex Ferguson has already expressed his unease at the damage it could do to Manchester United's preparations for the new season - and the fact it is not yet known whether any of the Home Nations apart from England will supply players adds further confusion to the situation.
Senegal became the final team to secure a qualifying spot when they overcame Oman 2-0 in a play-off at Coventry on Monday.
It raises the prospect of Newcastle duo Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse being selected, although Senegal officials played that prospect down immediately after the final whistle.
It was already known Great Britain's first game would be at Old Trafford.
In addition to top-seeds Brazil, Uruguay carry the South American flag, which raises the potential for the brilliant Neymar to exhibit his talents on a European stage, and also Diego Forlan and Luis Suarez.
Africa has provided a finalist in three out of the last four Games, so Senegal, Egypt, Morocco and Gabon should be respected.