Torrential rain in Berlin yesterday hampered preparations for today's World Cup final, with the French and Italian players to arrive during the day from their respective training camps.
The downpour, which started on Friday evening after days of uncustomary hot weather, forced FIFA to tell the Italians they would not as planned be able to get their first feel for the final venue at a training session yesterday morning.
Spokesman Andreas Herren said the decision had been taken "because of the state of the pitch and because of the heavy rainfall in Berlin over the last couple of days."
Italy coach Marcello Lippi and his men then decided to stay overnight at their Duisberg base in the west of the country and only travel to Berlin by a charter flight last night.
Opponents France were due to fly in from their base near Hanover earlier in the day and had scheduled a training session at another stadium in Berlin later in the evening.
Coach Raymond Domenech had the French squad undertake an hour-long final training session at what has been their base for the last five weeks on Friday evening.
Brazil's conquerors have a clean bill of health for the final, with only reserve striker Louis Saha unavailable due to suspension, having picked up a second yellow card after coming on as a substitute in the 1-0 semi-final win over Portugal.
Their drive to the final, which has taken them from strength to strength past Spain, Brazil and Portugal has completely changed opinions back home, with 86 percent of French people now convinced that their ageing team will once again win the World Cup today.
A French victory is expected to unleash massive celebrations in the capital with up to a million people converging, as they did eight years ago when France last won the World Cup, on the Champs-Elysees.
The view from Rome was more muted, with the Italian team's World Cup triumphs tempered by the huge match-fixing scandal which has rocked the league and eroded public faith in the way the sport is run.
The Italians are also relatively injury-free with only experienced defender Alessandro Nesta as expected unavailable due to a groin injury.
The World Cup organizers said yesterday that they were confident the final between France and Italy would go ahead in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin despite the storms.
There is the possibility of rain and possibly a thunderstorm during the course of the afternoon, but it should be calmer by the time the final kicks off at 8pm, organizing committee spokesman Gerd Graus said.
The temperature is forecast to be at around 25oC.
"The match will be played tomorrow, we have no qualms about that," Graus told a media briefing yesterday.
The pitch at the stadium had not been covered, he added.
"There was a lot of rain, but the pitch is in the condition to absorb it. There is no reason to cover it. In these kind of temperatures, covering the grass would actually have harmed it," he said.
FIFA spokesman Markus Siegler said that in the event of a major storm during the match which put the safety of players and spectators at risk, the organizers would decide whether to delay the kickoff until later in the evening, or even until tomorrow.
"In the worst-case scenario it could be delayed until Monday," he said.
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