This Friday, a capacity crowd of 65,000 at the Seoul World Cup stadium as well as millions of global television viewers will witness the start of the 'greatest show on earth' — the 17th World Cup championship.

The latest World Cup series is the first to be held in Asia and is also the first to be co-hosted by two nations — South Korea and Japan, two countries known for their mutual antipathy that goes back to Japan's colonial occupation of Korea from 1919 to 1945.

The opening game will kick off with the defending champions France facing debutants Senegal. This World Cup finals promise to be an adrenaline-charged affair with the participation of a record 32 nations who have triumphed over arduous qualifying rounds involving more than 180 nations. All will be vying for the sole right to be called — the best football team in the world.

Only one team can claim that right at the final game that will be played at the Yokohama International stadium in Japan on June 30 and that, football purists would love to believe, can come from any of the 32 participants, including four first-time contestants.

Only seven teams have won the championship since it started in 1930 in Uruguay, who was also the inaugural champion and has won it again in 1950. Brazil has been the most successful team, having won the title four times. They are also the only team to have qualified for all 17 World Cup championships.

Italy and Germany have won the title three times each and Argentina twice. England and France once each.

Football traditionalists say that this year's winner will again come from this elite group of past winners.

French brainchild

The French team won it with style four years ago in front of their home supporters. In the final game in the Stade de France in Saint-Denis near Paris, they defeated Brazil, who was chasing a second straight championship, 3-0 in a one-sided match.

Saint-Denis is the final resting place for many former French Kings and on the summer of 1998, the town witnessed the coronation of France as the new kings of world football. This year, France is again the favourite by 4 to 1 to retain their title, followed closely by Argentina and Brazil.

It has taken the French team a long time to reach the pinnacle of world football. The World Cup was after all the brainchild of two French men — Jules Rimet and Henri Delaunay.

Politics was the motivation behind the duo's idea of initiating a World Cup — they did not want world champions to be decided based on who won the Olympic Games but rather through a special tournament organised by the world football governing body, the F