London: a city of two hundred languages and two million immigrants. And last night, of eight teams from five continents.

On the day when yet another Barclays Premiership club was bought by overseas investors, it seemed apt that the capital symbolised the polyglot status of football in the nation by becoming the first city to host four international matches in a single evening.

An estimated television audience of 300 million saw Brazil play Portugal, which took place at a packed Emirates Stadium. It was Brazil’s second visit to Arsenal’s ground this season. Despite the cold, the atmosphere was typically carnival. Dunga, the Brazil coach, wore an Hawaiian shirt under his tracksuit and José Mourinho, Chelsea’s Portuguese manager, was there to see Luiz Felipe Scolari’s team win 2-0.

While that will prove highly profitable for the organisers, national associations and Arsenal, it was the only fixture that sold out. Ghana beat Nigeria 4-1 at Brentford, Australia lost 3-1 to Denmark at Loftus Road, the home of Queens Park Rangers, and South Korea beat Greece 1-0 at Fulham’s stadium, Craven Cottage.

Though the crowd at Griffin Park was only about 10,000, an estimated 100 million people in Africa watched on television. The match began late because Nigeria only arrived ten minutes before kick-off, while dozens of Ghana supporters invaded the pitch after their side’s second and third goals.

It was 5 am in Seoul at kick-off time but Kim Jun Soo, a London-based television producer, said that most Koreans did not mind that the match was taking place so far away. “It’s only a friendly,” he said.

The 2002 World Cup semi-finalists are frequent travellers. In the past year, South Korea have played Ghana in Edinburgh, Mexico and Costa Rica in California, Denmark and Croatia in Hong Kong and Greece and Finland in Riyadh.

Pim Verbeek, the South Korea coach, enjoyed the occasion. “I’d like to play an entire season here,” he said. “It was a fantastic atmosphere.”

Given growing sensitivities about players travelling long distances during the season, as well as the money to be made, yesterday’s global gathering is unlikely to be a one-off. As for England, they have not played in London since 2003.

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