The World Cup explained

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By Yasmine El-Rashidi

For the past six months, five nations have been campaigning furiously to bring the World Cup to their homeland. As one of the pack, we have spent time, and money and energy, sharing with the world the reasons why Egypt is the logical choice to host the world -- something it has done for centuries.

We have taken the time to look into how the nation will benefit from such an event -- economically, for a start -- but the actual event we are allocating millions to, is one whose history has not been regarded, and point is not quite understood.

The reality is stark: No other sporting event captures the world's attention like the FIFA World Cup. Ever since the first tentative competition in Uruguay in 1930, FIFA's flagship has constantly grown in popularity and prestige, luring the highest spectator turnout and viewers around the world.

Its inklings began in the 1920s. A group of visionary French football administrators, led by the innovative Jules Rimet, are credited with the original idea of bringing the world's strongest national football teams together to compete for the title of World Champions. The original gold trophy bore Jules Rimet's name and was contested three times in the 1930s, before the Second World War put a 12-year stop to the competition.

When it resumed, the FIFA World Cup rapidly advanced, claiming its spot as the media-termed "undisputed status as the greatest single sporting event of the modern world". Held since 1958 alternately in Europe and the Americas, the World Cup broke new ground with the Executive Committee's decision in May 1996 to select Korea and Japan as co-hosts for the 2002 edition.

Since 1930, the 16 tournaments have seen only seven different winners. The FIFA World Cup has also been punctuated by dramatic upsets, however, that have helped create footballing history -- the United States defeating England in 1950, North Korea's defeat of Italy in 1966, Cameroon's emergence in the 1980s and their opening match defeat of the Argentinean cup- holders in 1990.

Today, the World Cup holds the entire global public under its spell. An accumulated audience of over 37 billion people watched the France 98 tournament, including approximately 1.3 billion for the final alone, while over 2.7 million people flocked to watch the 64 matches in the French stadiums.

For the first time in its history, 80 years after it was first created, the World Cup will come to Africa -- the 15 May decision determining which nation will have the unprecedented privilege.

After all these years and so many changes, the main focus of the World Cup remains the same -- the glistening golden trophy, which is the embodiment of every footballer's ambition.

The chance to host the World Cup is Egypt's primary goal -- Minister of Youth and Sport Alieddin Hilal stressing the nation's desire to unite the world in the place where civilisation took root. For the country's footballers, however, that focus is perhaps blurred by the glistening golden globe that tops the sacred trophy.

With the Jules Rimet Cup now in the permanent possession of Brazil after their third World Cup triumph in Mexico City in 1970, FIFA commissioned a new trophy for the 10th World Cup in 1974. A total of 53 designs were submitted to FIFA by experts from seven countries, with the final choice being the work of Italian artist Silvio Gazzaniga.

He described his creation to the press at the time as one of dynamism: "The lines spring out from the base, rising in spirals, stretching out to receive the world. From the remarkable dynamic tensions of the compact body of the sculpture rise the figures of two athletes at the stirring moment of victory."

The current FIFA World Cup trophy cannot be won outright, as the regulations state that it shall remain FIFA's own possession. The World Cup winners retain it until the next tournament and are awarded a replica, gold-plated rather than solid gold.

The new trophy is 36cms-high, made of solid 18-carat gold and weighs 4,970 grammes. The base contains two layers of semi-precious malachite and has room for 17 small plaques bearing the name of the winners -- space enough for the World Champions up to the year 2038.

For those not impressed by a gold-plated award, it is necessary to look beyond the lines of the football pitch. In non-football lingo, and in a non-footballer's world, the World Cup has equivalents. It would be like winning an Oscar, an Emmy, or a Nobel Prize; like claiming the Wimbledon plate, the Olympic gold, a spot in the Guinness book of records. Perhaps to the academic, it offers the merit of an honorary doctorate.

For one who spent years mocking the obsessing and frenzy surrounding World Cup play, it is only once I stepped out of that box, tilted my head and looked at things from the side, that the chaos began to make sense. To the writer and journalist, that golden entity is comparable to a Pulitzer prize.