50. The 1974 final was delayed by 10 minutes because officials had forgotten to put in the corner and centre-line flags.
49. Belgian keeper Paul Preud'homme used to wear a shirt of Standard Liege (his first club) under his national jersey during international matches. He had to abandon this tradition in USA because of the heat.
48. The crowd for Romania v Peru at the 1930 finals was a whopping 300.
47. Greeted by a Japanese hostess on arrival at the finals, Ronaldo responded by sticking out his teeth still further and making the 'slitty-eyes' gesture.
46. Ronaldo decided to switch to his 'half-moon' hairstyle in the later stages of the 2002 tournament after he saw his infant son Ronald kissing a picture of Roberto Carlos, apparently believing the diddy defender was his dad.
45. In 2006, Ecuadorian shaman Tzamarenda Naychapi was allowed to "purify" each German stadium by letting out a loud scream to chase away evil spirits.
44. Frank Borghi, America's goalkeeper when they beat England at the 1950 finals, was a baseball player and part-time hearse driver who never learned to kick the ball. He threw the ball to a defender after saves and had a team-mate take goal kicks. Borgi never wore gloves--unlike USA full-back Charlie 'Gloves' Colombo, who always did.
43. BMW gave each competing team a luxury coach to use during the 1974 tournament. Police had to reclaim Zaire's after the team left their hotel in it, intending to drive it home to Africa
42. Italian FA chief Dr Ottorino Barassi was so worried that the German army might steal the Jules Rimet trophy that he kept it under his bed in a shoebox for the duration of the 1934 tournament.
41. Belgium's Jean Langenus reffed the 1930 Argentina v Uruguay final wearing plus fours, a tie and a deerstalker hat.
40. When Juan Hohberg scored a late equaliser for Uruguay against Hungary in 1954, he was jumped on by delighted team-mates. When they got up they discovered Hohberg had passed out.
39. United Arab Emirates players received a Rolls Royce for every goal their team scored at the 1990 finals. The UAE managed two in three defeats.
38. The string in Italy captain Peppino Meazza's shorts broke just before he took a vital penalty in the 1938 semi-final against Brazil. He took the kick while holding them up, then let them drop as he was mobbed by delighted team-mates.
37. During the 1938 finals, Brazil's Leonidas attempted to remove his boots and play in bare feet during a game against Poland held on a muddy pitch in Strasbourg. The ref ordered him to put them back on and the striker subsequently scored four goals as Brazil won 6-5.
36. India pulled out of the 1950 finals partly because of financial problems but also because they were not allowed to play in bare feet.
35. Scotland wore thick wool jerseys with long sleeves and buttoned collars for their match against Uruguay at the 1954 finals. Unfortunately, the temperature was in the 30s. Said midfielder Tommy Docherty: "The Scottish FA assumed Switzerland was cold because it had mountains. The Uruguayans wore light V-necked shirts with short sleeves. We lost 7-0."
34. K'naan's Wavin' Flag, the official tournament song, has had its lyrics rewritten after the original words described South Africa as a “violence-prone poor people zone.”
33. A German newspaper sent a squad of attractive women to the Dutch team hotel before the 1974 final, leading to a story headlined 'Cruyff, Champagne, Naked Girls And A Cool Bath'.
32. African cultural association The Makhonya Royal Trust has backed a plan to sacrifice a cow in each of the new World Cup stadia before they are officially opened. Said chairman Zolani Mkiva: "We must have a cultural ceremony of some sort, where we are going to slaughter a beast. We sacrifice the cow for this great achievement and we call on our ancestors to bless, to grace, to ensure that all goes well.”
31. On the way home from the 2002 finals, the Senegal side stopped off for a diplomatic visit in Taiwan, where it is said players were ministered to by 37 different call girls.
30. The Senegalese also outraged locals by wearing T-shirts and flip flops for what had been advertised as a full exhibition match against the hosts. The game lasted 15 minutes.
29. Alex Villaplane, France's captain at the 1930 finals, was imprisoned in 1935 for fixing horse races and later became a gold smuggler. He joined the French Gestapo during the Nazi occupation and, after the liberation, was shot as a traitor.
28. Romanian goal machine Gheorghe Hagi was a fully-qualified dentist.
27. American physio Jack Coll was knocked unconscious during the 1930 semi-final against Argentina when he ran onto the field to treat an injured player, dropped his bag next to the stricken Yank and was overcome by the fumes from a bottle of chloroform which had broken inside.
26. The great Soviet keeper Lev Yashin's pre-match routine was "have a smoke to calm your nerves, then toss back a strong drink to tone your muscles."
25. Japan's Shunsuke Nakamura or "Super Naka" is possibly the only player at the World Cup with an asteroid named in his honour (29986 Shunsuke for telescope enthusiasts).
24. Argentina's bruising Luisito Monti received death threats before he faced home side Uruguay in the 1930 final. Team-mates said the hard man was so badly shaken he even helped an opponent up after fouling him--which he had never done before.
23. Despite having its own award-winning vineyard, Fish Hoek near Cape Town--the home town of Matthew Booth, South Africa's bald, white, 6-foot-6 defender--had a ban on alcohol until 1994.
22. The Greek national anthem is a 158-verse poem set to music. Alas, only the first two verses are sung.
21. Russian striker Sergei Yuran was linked with Arsenal before the 1994 finals. Alas, he was sent home for a breach of team discipline and later signed for Millwall.
20. With France trailing Mexico 1-0 in their second game of the 1930 World Cup finals, referee Almeida Rego blew up for full time with a French forward clear through on goal and six minutes remaining on the clock.
19. Romania's 1930 squad was personally selected by King Carol II.
18. Brothers Victor and Vyacheslav Chanov battled each other to be the Soviet Union's goalkeeper at the 1982 finals. Both went to Spain, but neither played - they were second- and third-string to Rinat Dassajev.
17. Cameroon's team hotel at the 2010 finals is called The Oyster Box.
16. The Japanese squad list goes from 3 to 5 as the number 4 is considered unlucky in the country. Four is pronouced "shi" which is the same as "death."
15. After his brilliant blunder in 2006, former referee Graham Poll begins his after-dinner speeches with the words: "Good evening, I'm the prat who gave one bloke three yellow cards at the World Cup."
14. After losing 9-0 to Yugoslavia in the 1974 finals, Zaire players were threatened by President Mobutu’s guards and told that they could not return home if they lost to Brazil by a score of 4-0 or worse. Luckily, they kept it to 3-0.
13. Argentina's opening match in the 1930 tournament was watched by only 18,000 because supporters arriving by sea to Montevideo found the port so fogbound that eight of their 10 ships did not make it to land before their match had finished.
12. A mugger who stole Eva Standmann's handbag before the Brazil-Australia game in Munich four years ago found her ticket inside and decided to enjoy the game. Unfortunately, he sat in Eva's seat, next to her husband Berndt, who had him arrested.
11. The story of Scotland winger Willie Johnstone's positive drug test at the 1978 finals was broken on live TV by young reporter Trevor McDonald.
10. Not only did Diana Ross miss her penalty at the opening ceremony of USA 94, but hostess Oprah Winfrey fell off the stage.
9. In April 2010, prisoners at Castro-Castro prison in Lima, Peru, staged their own World Cup-- including an opening ceremony in which inmates danced for several hours.
8. After Ireland were beaten by Italy in 1990, then-Prime Minister Charles Haughey visited the dressing room. Niall Quinn remembered: "Those of us brought up in Ireland stood there in amazement as he made a speech about sporting sons of Ireland. It was totally hair standing up on the back of the neck stuff. But not everyone was from Ireland. Tony Cascarino was behind me and said loudly: 'Who the f*** is that?', ruining the moment. I said: 'that's the Taoiseach'. Andy Townsend was beside him and said loudly again: 'Who is it, Cas?' And he said: 'Dunno. Quinny said he owns a tea shop.'"
7. Garrincha, Brazil's World Cup hero of 1968 and 1962, lost his virginity at age 12. To a goat. He went on to father 14 children.
6. During the 1954 'Battle Of Berne' between Brazil and Hungary, English ref Arthur Ellis dismissed three players, including Joseph Bozsik, who was also a Hungarian MP. During the match a Brazilian player was struck on the head by a bottle thrown from the Hungarian bench, allegedly by legend Ferenc Puskas. Ellis later spent 18 years as the referee on BBC TV's It's A Knockout.
5. Yugoslavia's Rajko Mitic failed to make the kick-off of their 1950 match against hosts Brazil in Rio because he had run into an iron girder in the players' tunnel. He emerged 20 minutes later, his head bandaged, with his team already a goal down.
4. Juergen Sparwasser, who scored East Germany's winning goal over the West in a 1974 finals match which would be the only meeting between the sides, was forbidden to join the team celebration as Communist leaders feared a photo of him celebrating in Munich would be damaging to national morale. He defected to the West in 1988.
3. The Jabulani ball which will be used at the tournament has been advertised as the "roundest-ever ball"
2. After Scotland's disastrous start to the 1978 tournament Ally McLeod had told supporters they would win, the manager was holding a press conference in his Cordoba hotel when a small dog ran up to him, and the manager reached down to pat the stray. "This little fellow is my last friend in the world," he said mournfully. The dog bit him.
1. The 1990 'art' film Cicciolina And Moana At The World Cup features two porn stars who sleep their way through the opposition, tiring out star performers like thinly-disguised versions of Jurgen Klinsmann and Diego Maradona and enabling Italy to win. The Ruud Gullit lookalike in the movie was a big lad.
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