By Chris Mutseyekwa

THE FIFA World Cup which was launched in 1930 is full of shocking results, controversial decisions and has also seen the emergence of world acclaimed soccer stars.
Take the 1950 finals in Brazil, for instance.
Brazil, Uruguay, Sweden and Spain were the four teams which played in a round-robin format to determine the winner.
Brazil on home soil were outright favourites to beat Uruguay in the final game.
After all, Brazil had already walloped Sweden 7-1 and trounced Spain 6-1, while Uruguay had struggled to draw 2-2 with Spain and scrapped a 3-2 victory over Sweden.
There were premature victory celebrations in Brazil.
On the eve of the game, a leading newspaper in Brazil had a front page picture of the Brazilian team with the caption: “These are the champions.”
This caption infuriated the Uruguayan captain, Obdulio Varela, so much that he conjured a plan to convince his team that the Brazilians were beatable.
He bought several copies of this ‘offending’ newspaper and ordered his players to urinate over the picture.
The results were magical.
In what is now referred to as ‘The Maracana Blow’, Brazil were stunned 2-1.
When the final whistle was blown, there was a disturbing dead silence from the estimated attendance of about 210 000 shocked spectators – a record for team sports that remains to this day.
The organisers of the World Cup had disappeared and there was no presentation ceremony for the Uruguay victory.
Days of mourning followed as hundreds openly wept while the faint-hearted committed suicide.
We are back in Brazil and should we expect a 1950 repeat?
The World Cup final of 1954 in Berne, Switzerland, is also remembered for its shocking result.
Hungary led by their talisman, Ferenc Puskas, were breathing fire going into the finals with a 32-game unbeaten run.
In the final, they met West Germany whom they had thrashed 8-3 in the group stages.
With West Germany leading 3-2, Puskas appeared to have equalised just before the final whistle, but the Welsh linesman mysteriously ruled him offside.
The 3-2 scoreline stood and to this day the Germans refer to this stunning victory as: ‘The Miracle of Berne’.
Brazil’s 1950 grief ended at the 1958 final in Sweden when they beat the home team 5-2 in the final.
The final saw a 17-year-old Pele score two brilliant goals.
One of the goals has remained a collector’s item.
He chipped the ball over the head of a defender in the penalty area and before the ball touched the ground, he volleyed a thunderbolt past a bewildered ‘keeper.
Pele who had become the youngest goal scorer at a World Cup final went on to win two more World Cups (1962 and 1970) with Brazil.
Brazil’s victory in Sweden is significant because to date, that is the only time the trophy has crossed the Atlantic.
While Pele was the undisputed star in 1958, a naturalised Portuguese of Mozambican origin by the name Eusebio stole the show in 1966.
He emerged the Golden Boot winner with nine goals.
He is best remembered for the quarter final tie against North Korea, where the Portuguese were trailing 0-3 inside 25 minutes.
However, by the time the final whistle was blown, the Portuguese had won 5-3 with Eusobio scoring four.
Portugal lost 1-2 to England in the semi-finals.
And England went on to win the 1966 final on home turf in a controversial game after beating West Germany 4-2.
The West Germans’ spines were broken when a Geoff Hurst ‘goal’ was allowed to stand after the ball had cannoned off the underside of the crossbar and the linesman enthusiastically pointed to the centre.
To this day, there is no conclusive evidence that the ball crossed the line.
The 1986 final in Mexico saw the Argentine captain Diego Maradona set Aztec Stadium alight with his brilliance before his team lifted the trophy after beating West Germany 3-2 in the final.
The stocky dribbling wizard is best remembered for the two wonder goals christened ‘Hand of God’ and ‘Goal of the Century’ respectively, he scored in the quarterfinals against England.
In the ‘Goal of the Century’, Maradona moved with the ball from his own goal area weaving past the entire England team including the goalkeeper.
In a repeat final in Rome in 1990, farcical refereeing saw West Germany beat Argentina 1-0 after a controversial penalty in the 85th minute.
By this time, Argentina had already been reduced to nine men after two of their best players had received red cards, the first sending offs in a World Cup.
Before reaching the final, Cameroon had shocked the world by reducing Maradona to size, by beating his defending champions Argentina in the opening game of the tournament
Led by the 38-year-old Roger Milla,who scored four World Cup goals, Cameroon became the first African country to reach the quarter-finals.
This was significant progress if we consider that the first African country, Zaire, to play in the World Cup in Berlin in 1974 lost all its four group games without scoring even a single goal.
In one game, Zaire were massacred 0-9 by lowly Yugoslvia.
But Cameroon could have gone further than the quarter-finals were it not for a dubious penalty scored by England’s Gary Lineker when they were leading with time running out.
In 2002, Senegal repeated Cameroon’s feat by defeating defending champions France in the group stages.
Like Cameroon they went on to reach the quarter-finals with El Hadji Diouf claiming the starring role.
Ghana were agonisingly close from reaching the semi-finals in South Africa in 2010.
When Uruguayan Suarez handled the ball after it appeared to have crossed the line for Ghana’s winner.
However, the referee decided to award a penalty, which was missed.
Ghana lost in extra time.
Had the referee awarded the goal which seemed to have been the right decision Ghana would have been the first team from Africa to reach the semi-finals and may be go on to win the World Cup.
On Tuesday night, Ivory Coast joined Ghana, Cameroon and Argentina in falling at crucial moments due World Cup dubious penalties.