Consider the case of Colombia, the World Cup hosts who never were, forced into an embarrassing back-track three years prior to the 1986 competition for financial reasons. Or Mexico, their replacement hosts despite a devastating earthquake just eight months before the start of the competition, which claimed more than 20,000 lives but left the stadiums intact.

Twenty four years earlier Chile had used a similar tragedy to their advantage, successfully persuading FIFA to award them the 1962 competition over Argentina in order to help rebuild the country. Chilean president Carlos Dittborn successfully argued: "We have nothing - which is why we must have the World Cup."

In 1934, Italy's fascist dictator Benito Mussolini turned the competition as a propaganda platform while Argentina's military junta used the 1978 World Cup to distract from horrific human rights abuses. That was a tournament whose build-up was blighted by controversy, as many nations reconsidered their hard-earned participation. Holland travelled without Johan Cruyff, who refused to play on moral grounds. Yet the pain and controversy which has dogged so many World Cup hosts through history has not stopped any of the leading football nations dreaming of the chance to host another tournament. For they all know they will probably never get a better chance to claim the most prestigious prize in their sport than when the competition lands up on home soil.

Statistically this fact is borne out in the six competitions won by its hosts since Uruguay began the trend in Montevideo in 1930. Jose Nazassi was the first man to lift the trophy in front of 100,000 fans, whose delight was such that the following day, July 31, was declared a Uruguayan national holiday.

Italy also won at home four years later and it was not until France were beaten 3-1 by the Italians in their 1938 quarter-final that the tournament hosts were to be denied the trophy. But the impact is also apparent in an overall record which shows that only three host nations have fallen before the quarter-final stages since the World Cup's inception. The failures of America in 1998 and Japan in 2006 were honourable ones, the Americans narrowly falling to Brazil at the second-round knockout stage, and Japan having surprisingly topped their first-round group.

The dubious distinction of the least successful World Cup host in history must then fall upon Spain, whose 1982 campaign was ravaged by dressing-room disharmony. Having opened their account with a draw against Honduras, Spain were denied top spot in group five when they fell to a famous, embarrassing defeat to Northern Ireland. In a dull second-round group stage, defeat to West Germany was followed by a poor goalless draw against England, and elimination from the competition.

Yet hosting history is also scattered with tales of over-achievement, not least on behalf of the 2002 South Koreans who beat Spain and Italy and marched improbably all the way into the last four. Sweden's run to the 1958 final exceeded most expectations, as did Chile's fight to reach the semis four years later, where they lost to Brazil.