On the face of it the Fifa World Cup is all about quality football, generally recognised as the greatest sporting showpiece on earth. It involves the world's best footballers demonstrating their talent for close to 35 days to win football's most coveted trophy. However, delve deeper and it is about a lot more. It is about a developing nation's global posturing and its aspiration to stand up to the challenge of hosting a gargantuan sports extravaganza, whether mega sports events are acceptable tools of nation building, about national rivalries that go back years and decades, acts of fan violence and how to counter them, financial windfall or otherwise for the host country and for major business conglomerates, and finally about hosting peoples from across the world for a month giving a huge boost to tourism. Back in 1930 when the World Cup first made its appearance in the global sports landscape, Latin America was the obvious destination for Fifa to go to. Uruguay, the first host, was a footballing powerhouse and had won the gold in the Amsterdam Olympics of 1928, a match watched by more than 40,000 people. A top-class facility was subsequently built at Monte-video and the Cup was Uruguay's means to fast track urban development. With the Great Depression not having crippled the local economy yet, Uruguay did not hold back in splurging on the extravaganza. Interestingly, however, the national stadium in Montevideo was not ready on time and the inaugural match had to be played in the Pocitos stadium in the suburb of Penarol, home to the Uruguay Railway Cricket Club. From the very first Cup getting stadiums built on time has been a challenge for organisers. Delay in stadium building meant Uruguay missed out on playing the inaugural match and the honour went to France and Mexico. The other major issue that has dominated headlines in the lead-up to the 2014 Cup has been violence.