FOR Jamaicans, there are no official holidays over the next few weeks. But everyone knows that for better or worse, the approach to work across this land, and throughout much of the world, will be far more casual than is usually the case.

The reason, of course, is the four-yearly festival of the ‘beautiful game’, the FIFA World Cup of football, which kicks off today and ends in a grand final on July 11. Often described as the greatest show on earth, football’s World Cup has long presented a major challenge for employers and managers. For how can they in good conscience order employees and subordinates back to work when they themselves are glued to the television?

This time around, the extreme sense of anticipation and the feeling that much else is fading into insignificance is as it has long been.

Football fans the world over are licking their lips ahead of this morning’s opening game between hosts South Africa and Mexico, traditionally considered the top team in the Caribbean, North American and Central American region.

It’s not just the contests between football’s top nations that will keep the pulse racing, but also the sight of the globe’s most glamorous stars such as Argentina’s Lionel Messi, Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo and England’s Wayne Rooney in quest of even greater glory.

Italy — quintessential practitioners of stout defence and rigorous efficiency in football — are the defending champions, but as usual for Jamaica and the wider world, the favourite to lift the World Cup is Brazil, routinely considered to be the side that most defines the ‘beautiful game’. An intriguing aspect to this tournament is that Brazil’s coach, Dunga, a World Cup winner as a playing captain in 1994 in the USA, is as practical as they come — quite prepared, it seems, to sacrifice beauty if that is what it will take to win a sixth World Cup title for the South American giants. But such is the wealth of talent in Dunga’s squad, led by the creative midfielder Kaka; beauty as well as efficiency will surely be on show.

For sheer artistry it is Spain, the European champions, that most capture the imagination. Stars such as Andres Iniesta and Fernando Torres and a seamlessly fluid style of play have led many to believe that Spain will break its decades-old jinx and finally win the World Cup.

Then there is the question on every lip: can an African team — on continental soil at long last — finally break through to the final four and even go all the way to win the World Cup?

It’s a remarkable statistic, that even with the talk in recent decades of football ‘levelling off’, only seven teams have won the World Cup dating back to the inauguration in 1930 — Brazil (five times), Italy (four), Germany (three), Argentina (two), Uruguay (two), England and France (one).

Of course, there is more to this World Cup than happenings on the field. For hosts South Africa, this show is meant as yet more evidence of their achievement of true nationhood less than two decades since the dismantling of that evil and despicable system of apartheid which caused shame for the entire civilised world. For South Africans it must be a source of joy and satisfaction that, though frail in body, Nelson Mandela, the man most responsible for the moulding of the ‘New South Africa’, is still around to witness this great day.

The psychological boost for the South African nation should this tournament — the first World Cup on African soil — end as a success will be immeasurable. Also, the economic and social legacy of infrastructure such as new roads, rail and bus networks, airports, hotels, restaurants and stadia will surely be significant.

Like the head of Jamaica’s football Captain Horace Burrell, this newspaper is bitterly disappointed at Jamaica’s absence from the 2010 edition. There remains much to be said and taken on board if we are not to repeat the errors that led to the last failed campaign.

But that’s for another time. For now, let’s just enjoy the greatest show on earth.