From the 9th of June to the 9th of July, the excitement and fan frenzy builds to a deafening crescendo. Soccer fanatics are on high alert. It is time to defend to no end the pride of Region and Country. This is big. No, its bigger than big. Considering the fact that soccer is the most popular sport in the world today, it is no jaw-dropping surprise that Soccer’s World Cup is actually the largest sporting event on the planet. Based on sheer numbers, fan attendance, television ratings, number of viewers, travel revenue, ticket sales and media coverage; there is no sporting event that even comes close to this one. If you take the NCAA Basketball Tournament, the World Series, the Super Bowl and the Olympics and add them all together, it would still not be as big as the World Cup! Three and a half billion people will be watching this tournament unfold in at least a dozen locations in Germany in 2006. Strangely enough, the past World Cup events have been all but ignored in the United States. This is rapidly changing as Americans get more familiar with this action-packed sport.
The Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) was established in 1904 and they...