The 2002 FIFA World Cup was notable even before a ball was kicked. FIFA broke new ground in a number of ways starting with the awarding of the first World Cup tournament ever to be jointly staged, to Japan and South Korea. Initially Mexico were one of the bidding nations but when the two Asian nations agreed to a joint hosting of the finals, just before the final decision was made, their bid was chosen unanimously in preference to Mexico.
However once the ground-breaking decision was made the governing body almost immediately passed a ruling to prevent anything similar ever happening again.