Aug. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Brazil's exhibition soccer game with Argentina in London is proving more popular with fans than England's opening qualifier for the 2008 European Championship.

All 60,000 seats for the Sept. 3 Argentina-Brazil contest at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium sold out within a week of going on sale, said Andrew Ager, a spokesman for Pitch PR, which is promoting the game. England's game with Andorra a day earlier at Manchester United's Old Trafford has so far sold 49,000 tickets.

Argentina and Brazil, with seven world titles between them, both recruited new coaches after exiting the World Cup at the quarterfinal stage. Barcelona's Champions League-winning duo Ronaldinho and Lionel Messi will be among the players on display in the teams' first meeting on English soil.

``In Brazil when we play Argentina it is like we are playing in a World Cup final,'' said Brazil coach Dunga, who lifted the World Cup as captain in 1994. ``We have something to prove to the fans of Brazilian football.''

Dunga succeeded Carlos Alberto Parreira as Brazil coach, and Alfio Basile of Boca Juniors was named for the Argentina post after Jose Pekerman stepped down. The teams have met four times in the World Cup, with Brazil winning twice, Argentina once and one match drawn.

The match has been organized by Swiss-based sports rights agency Kentaro AG, which will share matchday revenue, estimated by the Guardian to be around 2 million pounds ($3.8 million), with Arsenal and the federations of each nation. The British Broadcasting Corp. is showing the game live at 4 p.m. local time.

New Stadium

The match will provide a global showcase for Arsenal's 357 million-pound stadium. The club's switch from its 38,000-seat Highbury ground after 93 years is expected to raise annual revenue by as much as 50 million pounds, helping the club compete with the spending power of teams such as London rival Chelsea, owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.

Two days later, Brazil will take on Wales at Tottenham Hotspur's White Hart Lane in another game organized by Kentaro.

The company also set up England's exhibition match against Argentina in Geneva last year and brokered the deal that saw Brazil set up its pre-World Cup base in the Swiss village of Weggis. Fans packed an 8,000-seat training arena to watch the stars gearing up for the tournament.

Meantime, England's Football Association has been striving to drum up interest in a match against a team ranked 132nd by governing body FIFA. Two weeks ago, only 45,000 of Old Trafford's 75,000 seats were taken up for a 4-0 exhibition win over Greece in Steve McClaren's first match as England coach.

England, rated second favorite by bookmakers before the World Cup, failed to sparkle at the tournament, limping out to Portugal on penalty kicks in the last eight.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sam Sheringham in London on at ssheringham@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: August 30, 2006 09:36 EDT