In June 2010 the World Cup will finally arrive in Africa, after 80 years of travelling between America, Europe and, in 2002, Asia.
Now that Africa has finally been chosen to stage the finals, the tournament - so long the property of Europeans and South Americans - can properly be called the World Cup.
Fifa, world football's governing body, was founded in 1904 but it took the new organisation no less than 26 years to start the World Cup. One major obstacle was the First World War and its acrimonious aftermath, another was the Olympic football tournament, considered to be the proper World championship by many people right up until the 1950's.
In 1926 Henri Delaunay, Fifa general secretary and right-hand man to president Jules Rimet, insisted on the necessity of the World Cup by saying "international football can no longer be held within the confines of the Olympics, and many countries where professionalism is now recognised and organised cannot any longer be represented there by their best players".
Two years later, at the Amsterdam Olympics, Uruguay was chosen as the venue for the first World Cup, ahead of Italy, Spain, Sweden and Holland, partly in honour of a majestic Uruguayan side that had swept to victory at the 1924 and 1928 Olympic tournaments with a flamboyance that took the Europeans by surprise.
In addition, Uruguay promised to pay the travel and hotel expenses of the visiting teams. Even so, only 12 countries bothered to make the trip. Most of the Europeans, including the four unsuccessful bidders, stayed at home, put off by the prospect of a tedious three-week boat trip.
All of the matches were staged in Montevideo, the only time that just one city has hosted a World Cup. The impressive Estadio Centenario, whose name honoured 100 years of Uruguayan independence, was not ready for the early games because of heavy winter rain.
As expected, Uruguay and Argentina -? the teams who had met in the 1928 Olympic final -? also reached the 1930 final. Thousands of Argentines wanted to cheer on their team and special boats had to make the trip across the River Plate.
They would return home disappointed. Argentina, led by the fearsome Luis Monti, went into a 2-1 lead but were overwhelmed in the second half by an electric Uruguayan attack. The hosts won 4-2, Montevideo went wild - and the World Cup had been born.
The 1934 finals were awarded to Italy and the Mussolini regime was desperate for the Azzurri to triumph. And triumph they did, thanks to the wily managership of Vittorio Pozzo, thanks to home support -? and thanks to Argentine-born stars Monti, Enrique Guaita and Raimundo Orsi.
This talented trio were the first of 12 players to turn out for both Argentina and Italy, until this was banned by Fifa in 1963.
It was Orsi who saved Italy in the 1934 final against Czechoslovakia, making it 1-1 with an astonishing free-kick just nine minutes from time. Angelo Schiavio scored the winner for Italy in extra time, to the delight of the watching Musssolini.
The following day Orsi tried to repeat his free-kick for the benefit of photographers and journalists but could not do so.
Uruguay had refused to go to Italy because of the Italians' absence in 1930. Uruguay also refused to participate in 1938, in protest at the tournament being again awarded to a European country, France, instead of alternating across the Atlantic.
Sixteen teams participated in 1934 and eight cities were used. Brazil and Argentina made the long trip only to play one game, because a straight knockout format was used instead of a group system.
Pozzo changed his team drastically for the 1938 tournament in France but triumphed again, beating Hungary 4-2 in the final with two goals apiece from Gino Colaussi and Silvio Piola.
Sadly, it would be the last World Cup match until 1950, because of the Second World War.
The 1950 tournament, held in Brazil, was a box of surprises: England were beaten by the USA and Spain, Italy were brushed aside by Sweden and Brazil were turned over right at the death by underdogs Uruguay.
Bizarrely, there were no semi-finals and final but rather an unprecedented -? and never to be repeated -? final group. Brazil only needed a draw in the last game against Uruguay to pick up the trophy and an all-time record crowd of around 200,000 packed into the massive Estadio Maracana to celebrate.
Friaca gave Brazil the lead but the defiant Uruguayans silenced the Maracana with goals from Juan Schiaffino and Alcides Ghiggia. A handful of Brazilians are said to have committed suicide in despair and hapless goalkeeper Moacir Barbosa became a national hate figure.
The 1954 tournament turned out to be an even more surprising World Cup than 1950, because hot favourites Hungary were beaten 3-2 in the Berne final - since dubbed the "miracle of Berne" in Germany - by a West German side that they had thrashed 8-3 earlier in the tournament.
The "Nationalmannschaft" had arrived on the world stage -? it was the first televised World Cup - albeit amid allegations of doping.
The 1958 World Cup, of course, will be remembered for the arrival of a precocious 17-year-old known as Pele. The mercurial teenager scored one of the most memorable goals of all time in the final against hosts Sweden, impudently flicking the ball over defender Orvar Bergmark then scoring with a precise volley.
The other great individual achievement in 1958 belonged to Just Fontaine, establishing a 12-goal tournament scoring record that will probably never be equalled, let alone bettered.
Brazil retained their world crown in Chile in 1962, though the star then was the enigmatic Garrincha rather than Pele, who was injured in the first round.
Pele also suffered injury in England in 1966 and Brazil crashed out against a Portuguese side led by Eusebio. A workmanlike rather than brilliant England side enjoying home advantage -? they were the only winners to play all their matches in one place, Wembley -? controversially beat West Germany 4-2 in the final.
Many Germans insist to this day that Hursts second goal -? he afterwards went on to complete his hat-trick -? did not cross the goal line.
The 1970 tournament, staged by Mexico, saw what was probably the best ever football team - Brazil, with Pele finally fit - romp to the title on a flood of goals. As a reward for their third triumph, Pele and company were allowed to keep the Jules Rimet Trophy.
1974 was the year when Franz Beckenbauer's Germans overcame the "Total Football" of Johann Cruyff and his Dutchmen, thanks largely to the passing of Wolfgang Overath, to the hard running of Rainer Bonhof -? and to the goals of Gerd Muller.
Beckenbauer and Cruyff both declined to go to Argentina in 1978, partly out of distaste for the brutal regime of Jorge Videla, which was busy "disappearing" up to 30,000 of its own citizens.
In a re-run of 1934, Videla pulled out all the stops to help the hosts. He even went into the Peruvian dressing-room just before the game that Argentina need to win by four goals in order to reach the final. They won 6-0, with young Mario Kempes scoring twice. Kempes scored two more in the final, in which Argentina beat 3-1 a Netherlands side sorely missing Cruyff.
In 1982 the World Cup, hosted by Spain, was extended from 16 to 24 teams, unfortunately adding more quantity than quality.
Italy came out of their shell after a horrible first round, thanks to the goals of a Paolo Rossi who had just finished a two-year ban for match-fixing. Rossi hit a hat-trick in the 3-2 thriller against Brazil, two against Poland in the semis and the first against a mediocre West Germany side in the final.
The Germans were just as mediocre in Mexico in 1986 -? and just as defiant. This time they were outclassed in the final by an Argentina side built around the imperious Diego Mardona.
Colombia had been awarded the 1986 finals but pulled out three years before and Mexico became the first country to stage the World Cup twice.
Italy followed suit in 1990, staging a World Cup with more tension than quality. West Germany celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and German impending unification by beating Argentina 1-0 in a bad-tempered final.
Beckenbauer became the second man -? Brazilian Mario Zagallo had been the first -? to lead his country to the world crown as coach and player.
1994 was just as tense as 1990 and it was the first tournament to have the final decided on a penalty shootout. It was cruelly ironic that Italy's best two players throughout the tournament -? Franco Baresi and Roberto Baggio ? should miss their penalties in the shootout against Brazil.
The 1994 World Cup was successfully staged by the USA, despite the midsummer heat, helping soccer to finally capture the American imagination and affection.
Brazil also reached the 1998 final but were thrashed 3-0 by hosts France, who had built a clever multi-racial side around Zinedine Zidane, the finals two-goal hero.
In 2002 the World Cup finally went to Asia, to be shared by Japan and South Korea in the first experiment in co-hosting. Brazil triumphed for the fifth time, establishing a new record by winning all seven of their matches, on a flood of goals from Ronaldo and Rivaldo.
2002 also set a new record for complaints about refereeing decisions, after first Italy then Spain were controversially knocked out by the Korean hosts.
Referees also took centre-stage in 2006, when Zidane was sent off in his last match before retirement for the now infamous head-butt in the final against the provocative Marco Materazzi.
Without Zidane, France lost the penalty shootout against Marcello Lippi's Italians, who probably deserved the world crown after their memorable 2-0 win in the semis against hosts Germany.
And so to South Africa in 2010. - Sapa-dpa