Now The Soccer War Begins As N93 Billion Prize Money Staked At 20th World Cup

                           


The excitement is already mounting. Global attention is focused on Bra­zil. The world literarily descends on one of the subcontinent countries of the world for the biggest single sporting event on Planet Earth. It is the second time Brazil will host having provided the venues for the 1950 edition. The competition today enters its 20th edition.
Brazil thus joins countries like Mexico, Italy, France and Germany to host the World Cup for the second time. Like the tentacles of an octopus, the excitement of the FIFA World Cup has penetrated the whole world living up to its reputation as the greatest show on earth.

The tensions of the World Cup are perva­sive and exhilarating. The spectacle trans­fixes the entire globe, turning each of the match venues to the theoretical ‘global vil­lage’ as over one-third of the human race are connected via television tubes and the new media to the proceedings.
Today, the FIFA World Cup is by far the biggest television sports event of the world. According to figures released by FIFA, the 64 matches of Germany 2006 World Cup were watched by an estimated 28.8 billion people. This compares to less than five bil­lion viewers for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. What was largely an experimental tournament at its inception in the afternoon of July 13, 1930 has blossomed to be the richest sporting spectacle. The total prize money at stake at Brazil 2014 is US $576 million (N93.5 billion) of which $70 mil­lion (11.3 billion) will go to domestic clubs whose players are featuring at the World Cup. For the footballer, the ultimate ambi­tion is to feature and distinguish himself in the World Cup.
At 84 years, the World Cup has surpassed the other sporting competitions and indeed, all human activities in terms of attendance, attention and importance. With every pass­ing edition, the competition grows. This comes to fore if it is considered that just 13 countries featured at the inaugural compe­tition in 1930 and all by invitation. By the next championship four years later, 31 en­tered. Participation increased to 36 in 1954, 71 in 1966, 97 in 1974, 121 in 1986, and 174 for France ‘98.
For the current one, a staggering 203 countries entered the preliminary competi­tion. That is a record entry, as the number even outstrips membership of the UN, lend­ing credence to the statement of the imme­diate past FIFA president, Joao Havelange who asserted that FIFA was even bigger than the United Nations.
Yet the object of the overwhelming show of emotion by nations, and even corporate bodies and global brands to be part of the show is a 36 cm high solid gold trophy weighing 6175 g (of which 4927g is pure gold). A 1973 creation of Italian artist, Sil­vio Gazzaniga, whose entry was the winner in a global competition that had 53 designs from seven countries, the trophy has a de­sign of lines springing out of the base and rising in spirals, stretching out to receive the world. That is exactly what Brazil is doing this month as the subcontinent plays hosts to the entire world.
When the referee blasts his whistle at 9pm Nigerian time to get the milestone edition of the World Cup underway, at Arena de Sao Paulo, Brazil will be attempting to uphold an age-long tradition as they face Croatia. No home nation has lost in the eight previ­ous curtain-raisers involving the home side.
The home teams have won five times. Those were the 7-1 defeat of USA by Italy in 1934, the 4-0 win of Brazil over Mexi­co in 1950, hosts Sweden beating Mexico 3-0 in 1958 and Switzerland losing 3-1 to hosts, Chile in 1962 while Germany wrecked Costa Rica 4-2 eight years ago at Germany 2006. The other three opening games involving the host countries ended drawn. Those were England and Uruguay encounter in 1966 and Mexico holding So­viet Union in 1970 which were goalless and the 1-1 draw of South Africa with Mexico exactly four years ago today. If the trend of host teams not losing the opening games should persist, and considering the rela­tive strength of Brazil in football, the hosts should have cause to celebrate tonight.
Brazil will be featuring in the opening match for the fourth time after those of 1950 when the team beat Mexico 4-0, drew 0-0 with the then Yugoslavia in 1974 and the 2-1 defeat Scotland in 1998.
But Croatia should not be taken as push over. The Croats emerged from qualifying play off to debut at France ’98 and created the greatest upsets, becoming the first debu­tants to finish in the third place since Portu­gal in 1966. On their way to the upsets were the carcasses of Germany which Croatia beat 3-0. Among the 13 World Cup matches Croatia has played are encounters with five world champions. Brazil will be the sixth World Cup holders to face Croatia.
This match is just one of the 64-game se­ries that will decide who will be the cham­pions of the world. Thirty two nations that emerged from the 206 entries three years ago are converging at the 20th FIFA World Cup. They are split into eight groups of teams at the December 2013 draws in Sal­vador. Two teams from each group will ad­vance into the next stage from where eight of the 16 will get to the quarter finals. This is the fifth edition of the World Cup to be played under the present 32-team format. This year’s edition is having just one debu­tant, Bosnia Herzegovina, which is one of the teams Nigeria will face at the group stage. The country will therefore be the 77th team ever to compete in the World Cup.
Of those teams, only eight have ever emerged champions. Brazil leads the pack with five victories. The Brazilians are fol­lowed by Italy (4), Germany (3), Uruguay (2), Argentina (2), England, France and Spain with a victory each.
Before the France ‘98 tournament, there were 24 teams since the 1982 World Cup in Spain. Africa had five teams in 1998, 2002 and Germany 2006. At the USA’94 tourna­ment, Africa presented three teams. Before then, in 1982, 1986 and 1990, Africa had two teams in the 24-team format.
For many editions from 1934 to 1978, the World Cup maintained a 16-team format. Africa did not have a definite slot until 1970 when the continent was grudgingly offered a place. Before then, the team that emerged from the continent will have to engage the Asian winners in a play-off.
It took the boycott of the 1966 World Cup by African and Asian teams before both continents were given a slot each. Only 13 teams, all by invitation played the inaugu­ral edition in 1930. Till date, the world had seen 772 World Cup matches. As this year’s edition gets underway, FIFA statisticians are looking forward to the June 21 game of Ni­geria and Bosnia Herzegovina in Cuiaba. A milestone will be reached as the game will be 800th in World Cup history.
Previous milestone game included Aus­tria v. Uruguay in 1954. It was the 100th game in the competition’s history. Also, the game of the Germans – West Germany v. East Germany in 1974 was the 250th World Cup match, just as the Argentina v. Bulgaria encounter at the USA’94 was the 500th match. Fixtures in World Cup have always presented some timeless classics. Some fixtures are ever recurring. Heading such fixtures is a clash of Brazil and Swe­den. Both had met seven times in the past to rank as the most recurring World Cup fix­ture. But the fixture will not repeat itself at Brazil 2014.
The last time they met was in the semi finals of USA’94. Two of the seven World Cup clashes of Brazil and Sweden included legendary Brazilian players of Vava and Za­gallo.
The 1958 clash in the final also featured Pele, then just 17, who went on to be a ma­jor factor in the first three of Brazil’s five World Cup titles.
Next most recurring clash is that of Ger­many and the then Yugoslavia who had met five times. Following that are the five clashes of Brazil and Czechoslovakia, Bra­zil v. Italy, Argentina v. Italy, Argentina v. England, France v. Italy, Germany v. Italy, Argentina v. Italy and Brazil v. Spain.

Adapted from Sun  Newspaper of 12th June 2014