Roger Lemerre grim-faced as France bow out (Allsport)

By Frank Malley, PA Chief Sports Writer, Shizuoka

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What an amazing World Cup.

There is despair in Paris, weeping in Buenos Aires and recriminations in Rome, while in Dakar and Seoul the celebrations could not be more euphoric.

And the obvious conclusion as we take stock of the World Cup quarter-finalists is that never before has there been such a level playing field in the planet's most popular game.

Gone are the days when Europe and Latin America could arrive at the world's biggest sporting tournament in the knowledge that they could cruise through the early rounds against opposition barely in the same league.

The stunning collapse of world champions France at these championships was no fluke. Nor was the early elimination of Argentina and the fall of Italy to a South Korean side with genuine hunger, technical proficiency and invigorating talent.

FIFA can tear up its world rankings and embrace a new footballing order - an order where the United States, if it were to become anywhere near half serious about a game which is played mostly by women in the world's greatest power, would surely dominate given its surge to the quarter-finals in Korea and Japan. An order, too, where Asia, with its teeming millions and a youth market obsessed with sport, would inject a Mount Fuji-sized mountain of money into the game which would make Manchester United look like paupers.

You only have to visit any of the 20 state-of-the-art stadiums at this high-tech World Cup to realise how serious and how meticulous this continent is about challenging the historical heartland of the game.

Already Sweden's Coventry goalkeeper Magnus Hedman has predicted Japan, a country with seemingly limitless resources of men and money, will win the World Cup within the decade after a tournament which has roused a pride and a passion deep within its psyche.

Two weeks ago that would have seemed overly optimistic but the way Japan euphorically embraced its first World Cup triumph over Russia, wept in defeat against Turkey and joined in the general hysteria surrounding Brazil and England, football is here to stay.

The African revolution is more difficult to predict accurately. Cameroon acquitted themselves well, Nigeria not so well, but it was Senegal who set the tone for this most extraordinary of World Cups.

From the moment Papa Bouba Diop stripped off his shirt, laid it on the Seoul turf and invited the rest of his team to dance around it by the corner flag after scoring the winning goal against France in the tournament's opening match, the competition was in fantasy land.

At a stroke the Senegalese, a former French colony, proved that sport is cyclical, football moves on and the highest level is no place for ageing stars with too much arrogance and too little energy. World Cups are not won on reputation. They are won with desire and skill and buckets of honest sweat. As it happened the French fell down on at least two of those qualities. Senegal, however, are a perfect example of how the new world order has come about. Almost all their squad play in the French professional league with Papa Bouba Diop starring for Lens.

Players like double penalty-saver Brad Friedel from the United States, Japan's Hidetoshi Nakata, Nigeria's Lauren, South Korea's Ahn Jung-hwan and many others are sharpening their skills in the world's most prestigious leagues.

When such players fly home to don their national colours their countries benefit hugely from their experience. No longer is there a clearly defined European or Latin style. Coaching skills and playing talents are being homogenised worldwide. There is now one global market for footballing talent.

Just as the Premiership has become the most exciting league in the world because of its huge influx of foreign talent, so too the World Cup has benefited - becoming a field of dreams for sides who only recently would have been happy just to make up the numbers.

Senegal, Turkey and South Korea actually believe they can lift the trophy - and one day they just might, though this year is surely a tournament too soon.

When this year's world champions lift the famous gold trophy to the Yokohama skyline a week on Sunday, the odds still favour one of the established order from Europe or Brazil.

But in four years time, who knows? As someone once sang, the world it is a changing.