At last the 2014 World Cup has arrived, and even the most indifferent sports fan cannot help but be excited about this global event. If the football disappoints (and with players like Messi and Ronaldo playing that isn’t likely) then the off-field politics is likely to keep events interesting.

At a cost of roughly US$14 billion (precise estimates differ) the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil has turned into the most expensive football world cup ever. Putting things in context, no other world cup of the 21st century has cost more than $6 billion and the most expensive World Cup of the 20th Century, France in 1998, cost a distinctly reasonable $340 million. But it isn’t likely that even this unwelcome record will stand for long, bearing in mind that Russia is hosting the next world cup and they managed to spend over US$50 billion on the winter Olympics. And then the 2022 world cup is being held in Qatar, which due to its lack of footballing infrastructureis having to build 9 of the 12 stadia needed, from scratch.

Bearing in mind how much work needed doing to prepare Brazil for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, it is interesting to note how little competition there was to hold the event. Once FIFA declared that they would be rotating the World Cup to a South American country, of the three countries interested in submitting a bid, only Colombia and Brazil ultimately went ahead, while Argentina, never entered a bid. Colombia then withdrew its bid before any final judgement was made leaving Brazil as the only country left in the running. President DaSilva must have had some inkling of the costs of hosting the games when he said that "We don't have any stadium which is in a condition to host World Cup games. We’re going to have to build at least 12 new stadiums in this country."

Since then Brazil has struggled to meet the ambitious goals set by President Da Silva back in 2007, and while it seems that the stadia, and most of the infrastructure, will be ready for the first event the Brazilian government’s popularity has taken a hammering. Protestors have taken to the streets to express their anger at, what they consider to be, the mis-spending of funds on white-elephant stadia and transport-networks-to-nowhere, while the grinding poverty of the favelas, the inadequate, or expensive public transport systems, or the poor healthcare system, all go unresolved. Tempers are so short, in fact, that world cup protocol had to be amended so that DilmaRoussef would no longer give a speech at the opening ceremony for fear of being shouted down by public jeering.

Then add to all of this the ongoing controversy surrounding Qatar’s surprisingly successful bid to host the 2022 World Cup, with Sepp Blatter, FIFA’s president having to answer accusations that corruption was involved. Over the last couple of weeks, the UK’s The Sunday Times has been publishing a series of revelations related to Qatar’s bid, with particular attention placed on the activities of Mohamed bin Hammam. A Qatari and a former FIFA board member bin Hammam received a life ban from football by FIFA’s ethics committee for “conflicts of interest”.

FIFA already have an ex-New York prosecutor, Michael Garcia, on the case investigating earlier allegations directed against the successful Qatar bid. By now Michael Garcia should have completed his investigation and be readying his report for submission to FIFA in six weeks’ time. Unfortunately accusations and evidence provided by The Sunday Times (which extend to hundreds of millions of files) won’t be included in Mr Garcia’s report since he will not have time to evaluate all of the data before the deadline for submitting the report is up. It is probably fair to point out that no proof of impropriety on the part of Qatar has been given, and Qatar has denied everything. Yet the list of issues which were discounted in Qatar’s bid is significant: workers’ rights, dangerously high temperatures inside and outside the stadiums, attitudes to alcohol and LGBT rights.

All of this leaves the humble fan frustratingly disconnected from their sport. It is a matter of clear exasperation that such a popular sport can be managed in high-handed aloof isolation from the interests of the people who play it. Somehow FIFA exists in an airy unaccountable realm of “internationaldom” with its international headquarters located in Switzerland, and its activities seemingly only answerable to Swiss law. FIFA is another reminder why those bodies that the people create to represent their interests, must at all times remain accountable to the interests they claim to represent.

As a business football has much to look forward to. It is already the dominant team sport in South America, Europe and Africa. However there is a quiet revolution in the USA, as football permeates the grass roots of American sports thanks to the enthusiasm of America’s growing Hispanic population, and also thanks to the expense and long-term harm of Americas other leading winter team sport; American football. And in China, as well as other areas of SE Asia, the ultimate dominance of football seems almost inevitable as local clubs grow to march the popularity of televised European games.

When the whistle blows on Thursday night, and the players from Brazil and Croatia take to the pitch, all of these controversies will be forgotten. The rancour and the hostility will be replaced by a celebration of human skill and spirit, that more than any other event emphasises the commonality of the people of the World in the entirely peaceful love of kicking a small ball around a grass covered field.