The venue for this year's opening match and final, Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg, is shaped like an African pot, known as a calabash. Soccer City's black seats form lines pointing in the direction of the other World Cup grounds, with one line pointing to the 2006 World Cup final venue, Berlin's Olympia Stadion. The stadium was built on the historic site of a mass rally staged in 1990 to celebrate the release from prison of Nelson Mandela.

The original World Cup trophy was named after the founder of the tournament, Jules Rimet and awarded to Brazil permanently after they became the first three-times champions in 1970. The current FIFA World Cup trophy was introduced in 1974, but will not be awarded to the next three-time champions. The base of the current World Cup is designed to be inscribed with names of the 17 champions from 1974 to 2038. In 2042 a new trophy will be used and the old trophy will be kept at FIFA's Swiss HQ.

Nine World Cup teams in the 2010 finals will wear shirts made from recycled plastic bottles.  Brazil, The Netherlands, Portugal, USA, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Serbia and Slovenia will wear the Nike shirts, made from fabric sourced from discarded plastic bottles at Japanese and Taiwanese landfill sites, then melted them down to produce new yarn that is converted to fabric for the kits.

The goal scored by Holland's Johan Neeskens in the 1974 World Cup final was unique for three reasons. It was scored from the first penalty ever awarded in a final, by English referee Jack Taylor. Coming in the first minute, it was also the earliest ever goal scored in a final. Most remarkably, the German opposition had yet to touch the ball before it hit the back of the net – the ball had been passed by the Dutch players 15 times without a German touching the ball, before the penalty was awarded.

Scotland declined to play in the 1950 World Cup finals, despite qualifying courtesy of finishing second to England in the British Home International Championship, which served as a qualifying group that year. The Scots arrogantly announced that they would only participate as British champions – a stance they would be unlikely to take today, having failed to qualify since 1998.

The red and yellow card system was first used in the 1970 finals, having been invented by English referee Ken Aston, a school headmaster. However, not one red card was shown at the 1970 World Cup, with only yellow cards being produced.

Despite qualifying comfortably for the 1938 World Cup in France, Austria did not compete in the finals. The reason? Nazi Germany had annexed Austria. No team were chosen to replace Austria and Sweden were handed a walkover in their scheduled match with the Austrians. The Swedes went on to reach the semi-finals.

At the very first World Cup finals in 1930, football-mad King Carol II of Romania personally selected the players who represented his country. King Carol II went so far as asking the employers of his semi-professional players to grant each player a three-month leave with full pay, as the journey to Uruguay from Europe in those days required weeks at sea.

England and Scotland are among five teams who have gone unbeaten but not become champions in the same finals. Scotland in 1974 won one match and drew two, but were eliminated in the first round, while England won three matches and drew two in 1982, exiting in the second group stage. Brazil in 1978, Cameroon in 1982 and Belgium in 1998 were the other unbeaten, non-champions.

The first World Cup mascot was 'World Cup Willie' – a lion used for the 1966 World Cup in England. Subsequent World Cup mascots have included an orange ('Naranjito', Spain 1982), a jalapeno pepper ('Pique', Mexico 1986) and a stick figure with a football head ('Ciao', Italy 1990). This year's mascot is a leopard with green hair, named 'Zakumi'.

Spain and Liverpool striker Fernando Torres wanted to be a goalkeeper when he was a child.

Spain were the first non-British team to beat England when they won 4-3 in Madrid in 1929.

Spain went a world record 35 matches undefeated between a friendly defeat to Romania on 15 November 2006 and a 2-0 loss to the USA on 24 June 2009, during which they won 32 games, drew three and won the European Championship.

Alexander Frei, Switzerland's all-time top scorer, adopted a llama at Basel zoo to apologise for spitting at Steven Gerrard during Euro 2004.

Switzerland will be the home of the World Cup trophy from 2042. The base of the current World Cup is designed to be inscribed with names of the 17 champions from 1974 to 2038 and, from 2042, a new trophy will be used, while the old one is kept at FIFA's Swiss HQ.

At the 2006 World Cup, Switzerland became the first team in World Cup history to be eliminated despite not conceding a single goal.

A war was started following a Honduras v El Salvador World Cup qualifying match in 1969. War broke out between the two countries, following rioting related to World Cup matches between the two, which were in turn connected to political tensions between Honduras and El Salvador. The resulting conflict is known as the 'Football War'.

Honduras' first international match ended in a 10-1 defeat to Guatemala in 1921.

At Honduras' previous World Cup finals appearance in 1982, they managed to draw with the hosts Spain and Northern Ireland.

Chilean player Carlos Caszely was the first player to be shown a red card at the World Cup finals, receiving one 67 minutes into a first round match with West Germany in 1974. Prior to this tournament, players dismissed from the field during World Cup matches were merely ordered off by the referee, without the brandishing of a red card.

Chile qualified for the 1974 World Cup final thanks to a walkover. They were due to face the Soviet Union in a qualifying play-off, but the Soviets refused to play in Chile's Estadio Nacional because it had been used as a detention camp for 'political prisoners' by Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Chile's players kicked off the match in an empty stadium, scored a goal in the unprotected net and were immediately awarded a victory by the referee.

Chile were banned from the 1990 and 1994 World Cup finals after their goalkeeper, Roberto Rojas, feigned injury during 1990 qualification, in attempt to get a match with Brazil abandoned. Rojas used a concealed razor blade to pretend a flare had hit him.

The most red cards shown in a World Cup finals match is four, from the 2006 second round clash between Portugal and Holland. Both sides were reduced to nine men.

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro got his second name because his dad was a big fan of former US President Ronald Reagan.

Portugal's legendary striker Eusebio holds the record for the most number of penalties scored in one tournament, scoring four in 1966. He shares the record with Holland's Rob Rensenbrink (1978).

Because North Korean citizens are banned from travelling outside their country, the team will have virtually no fans to support them in South Africa. For this reason, a China-based Brit named Simon Cockerell has founded the North Korea Football Supporters Association to cheer on the North Koreans at the World Cup. Another Englishman, Portsmouth-based Bryan Clark, has tickets to all North Korea's games and will be supporting the team in the stadiums, as he did when they qualified in Saudi Arabia. Clark has even been to see the team play in Pyongyang, which is extremely difficult given the restrictions on travel to North Korea.

North Korea's dictator Kim Jong-il has banned the screening of live World Cup games to his long-suffering citizens and will only allow heavily edited highlights of the team's 2010 matches to make sure the North Koreans look like the better team. Matches involving other countries will be ignored, as will the rest of the tournament once North Korea are knocked out.

North Korea caused perhaps the greatest World Cup upset in 1966 when they beat Italy, but failed to qualify for Mexico in 1970 as they were disqualified during the qualifying rounds after refusing to play Israel.

Ivory Coast won the highest scoring penalty shoot-out in full international history when they beat Cameroon 12-11 in the 2006 African Cup of Nations.

Going into the 2010 World Cup, Ivory Coast is the only country that has never failed to score in a World Cup finals match, having scored in all three of their games in 2006 against Argentina, the Netherlands and Serbia and Montenegro.

Ivopry Coast's greatest moment so far was their 1992 Africa Cup of Nations victory, when they beat by an incredible 11-10 on penalties. It was the first time every player on the pitch had to take a penalty in a major international tournament.

Brazil hold the record for the most consecutive wins at the World Cup finals, with 11 victories between a 2-1 win over Turkey in 2002 stretching until their 1-0 defeat to France in the 2006 quarter finals.

Brazil were knocked out in 1978 on goal difference at the second group stage held that year, despite a seven-game unbeaten run in the tournament.

Brazil originally played in white, but a newspaper competition for a new kit design led to the adoption of a strip incorporating the four colours of the Brazilian flag. The yellow jersey with green trim and blue shorts has been worn ever since 1954.

Slovakia played their first international match in 1994, having previously been amalgamated with the Czechs under the banner of Czechoslovakia. Despite this being Slovakia's first World Cup finals, Czechoslovakia were World Cup runners up in 1934 and 1962, as well as European Champions in 1976.

Former Middlesbrough player Szilard Nemeth is Slovakia's record goalscorer, with 22 goals.

Slovakia are the only team of the 32 taking part in South Africa making their first-ever finals appearance. The last time that occurred was in 1950, when there were only 13 participants in total. In 2006, six nations – Ukraine, Ivory Coast, Angola, Ghana, Togo, and Trinidad & Tobago – made their finals bow.

Former Paraguay goalkeeper Jose Luis Chilavert scored eight goals for his national team in 74 games, which is a world record for an international goalkeeper.

Paraguay have won the South American Championship (the 'Copa America') twice, in 1953 and 1979.

Paraguay's most-capped player is Carlos Gamarra, a centre-back who played 110 times for his national team. Gamarra went through the 1998 and 2002 World Cup finals without conceding a single free-kick. He also scored an own goal against England in the 2006 tournament.