The head of soccer's world governing body FIFA is never likely to be called a shrinking violet. In the world of sport, perhaps only the head of the International Olympic Committee has a more powerful voice. When he talks, everyone listens.
So when back in the early 1990s Joao Havelange said that Japan was the ideal place to hold the 2002 World Cup, it could have only one meaning: FIFA would stage the 2002 event in Japan.
Havelange and his general secretary Sepp Blatter started to gently turn Japan's idea of hosting the World Cup into a reality. No matter that the decision was to be decided by FIFA's executive committee, no matter that Mexico was also keen to grab the 2002 World Cup, no matter that Japan didn't even have a professional league.