Many will use generic soccer images or sponsor individual players or teams.

David Beckham, Wayne Rooney and the rest of the England team will top the list of big earners with about $90 million in sponsorship, the Chartered Institute of Marketing estimated. Italy is second with $50 million.

"What a lot of companies are going to do is use the theme of football and you can't really stop that," said Simon Rines, publisher of the International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, a quarterly analysis of the sector.

Even if FIFA manages to protect its sponsors, industry observers are divided over whether the exposure works.

Some surveys suggest people confuse the names of official and unofficial sponsors at big events.

Tim Wilson, a director in consulting at Deloitte & Touche, said that, as well as paying FIFA an estimated 25 million pounds ($46 million), official sponsors have to spend the same again to make the most of their rights.

"Emotions can sometimes sway cold logic and you end spending a fortune," he said. "You get loads of visibility, but you think 'was it really worth it?'"

Most of the official sponsors are household names who don't need to raise brand awareness, instead they want their products to benefit from the feelgood factor around the event, observers say. But they face a tough job making their voice heard.

"It is very difficult to make your message stand out," said Drew Barrand, features editor of "Marketing" magazine in London. "It just becomes a wall of noise."