The long build-up is over, the uplifting opening ceremony is consigned to history: World Cup 2006 is under way. The greatest sporting event on the planet got off to a thrilling start last night with hosts Germany marching to a convincing win in the end over Costa Rica at the spectacular new stadium in Munich specially built for the tournament.
For an event that comes around only every four years, the World Cup finals occupy a unique position in world sport and beyond. Their appeal is truly universal with estimates that last night's opening game drew a TV audience of over a billion people and confident projections that the tournament will be the most watched event ever.
World Cup fever grips every continent and no event generates more interest and passion across the globe. For Irish soccer fans, the excitement of the next few weeks will be tinged with regret that the Republic missed out on the chance of competing at the finals after the team, managed then by Brian Kerr, failed to capitalise on a great start to their qualifying campaign.
However, the tens of thousands of immigrants now working and living in this State will add a new dimension to the Irish enjoyment of the finals. They will support their national teams competing in Germany with the same fervour and good humour as Irish supporters showed in backing the Republic of Ireland at the 1990, 1994 and 2002 finals.
Those tournaments showed the way soccer seizes the popular imagination and creates a national mood. Soccer is the nearest thing there is to a world sport. It has not quite swept every country: baseball, American football, and basketball are far more important in the United States, an Ashes cricket match between Australia and England matters more than a soccer international between the two countries and the Rugby World Cup is more important to New Zealanders. But soccer is by far the main professional sport across Europe and South America and is played in every country. The massive television audiences in the coming weeks will confirm its predominant position and the magnetism of the World Cup in particular.
That pulling power has been exploited to its maximum by FIFA, the governing body for football, which recognises the value of its showpiece tournament in driving economic revival as much as promoting the game itself. For the next month , however, the most talented players in the world take centre stage. There will be many soccer widows. For all of that, let's hope the World Cup will be a thrilling reflection of outstanding skills.