It all kicks off today. You know what I'm talking about.

Small children are trailing through my local supermarket wearing yellow and green shirts because of it.

The BBC's Mark Lawrenson is having to make more predictions than Nostradamus because of it.

Google's characters, with Sugarloaf Mountain behind them, are bobbing up and down on Copacabana Beach because of it.

A semi-final at the Hockey World Cup in The Hague has just been re-scheduled in order not to clash with it.

Today, in the Arena de São Paulo, the 2014 FIFA World Cup finals get underway, and for a few precious days, the possibility will remain alive in 32 countries that the trophy first picked up by West Germany's Franz Beckenbauer in 1974 - following Brazil's annexation of the old trophy for all time through a third victory - may yet be lifted by a man in their nation's colours.

Neymar, Brazil's star turn, warms up with his team mates ahead of their opening World Cup match against Croatia ©AFP/Getty Images

Lawrenson is not the only ex-player and/or pundit to suggest that Croatia - who will play the host nation in the opening match - will find those hopes have been significantly dimmed by the time today turns into tomorrow.

Despite all the current allegations, suspicions and frustrations involved in the award of the 2022, and even the 2018 World Cup finals, and despite the cynical and at times morally corrupt machinations of football's international governing body, and despite the wearisome resilience of the man at FIFA's head, Sepp Blatter - the 78-year-old Swiss who is to seek yet another last tour of duty in defiance of calls to resign from some members of his organisation - there is still a primal excitement to be had from the moments before the only sporting event to rival the Olympics starts rolling.

Assuming Brazil get to kick off, it will probably be their forward, Fred, who first lays a boot on the latest rebranded, redesigned and of course re-marketed footballs designed specifically for the tournament. By rights, given how FIFA operated in recent years, they should move in mysterious ways.

Every four years, just as with the Olympics, the World Cup finals exert a profound influence on the whole sporting universe. Like a black hole, they exert a huge gravitational pull upon the consciousness of the average sporting observer.

For instance, the news that Sir Bradley Wiggins, who has already ruled out his involvement in the Tour de France this year despite the lack of official confirmation, will be cycling at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, certainly on the road and possibly on the track too, is terrific.

Sir Bradley Wiggins en route to victory in the recent Tour of California. He reckons he won't get a ride at the Tour de France, however, and so is now contemplating competing on the road and maybe the track to at the Glasgow 2014 Games. Good news - but not top news ©Getty Images

And the news that Olympic 200 metres champion Allyson Felix is heading back to full fitness after injury, as evidenced by her first IAAF Diamond League victory of the season in Oslo yesterday, is terrific.

And the news that Andy Murray has got off to a winning start at Queen's Club under the guidance of his new coach Amelie Mauresmo, is terrific.

But it is all background music right now. Brazil is sport's epicentre. And the good news for followers of the home team is that they can already start celebrating a home victory - that is, if Big Head, the "psychic turtle", is to be trusted.

Franz Beckenbauer became the first captain to get his hands on the new World Cup back in 1974. Maybe Big Head, the psychic turtle, already knows who will take possession of it when the World Cup finals in Brazil come to a close ©AFP/Getty Images

Footage available on the internet shows the turtle in a pool delighting locals with its choice of direction after being set the task of predicting the opening match by choosing which of three pieces of fish to go for first, with one piece being suspended under a Brazilian flag, another under a Croatian flag, and the last under a football to indicate a drawn game.

Big Head swam unerringly to the left for a first go at the fish under the host flag, thus confirming that the home side will win in São Paulo today. What a relief that must be to the many millions of Brazil supporters awaiting the match.

What we need now, of course, is another predictive creature - a monkey, perhaps, or political pollster - to emerge and offer a firm indication that Brazil are about to be beaten by Croatia. That was the scenario, after all, which operated with such success during the last World Cup finals in South Africa four years ago.

On one level the 2010 World Cup final was contested by two football teams, Spain and The Netherlands.

But at a deeper level, it was a struggle between an octopus and a parakeet. Or rather, it was an octopus and a Malaysian parakeet against a Singapore parakeet.

As the World Cup finals progressed, the significant action in stadiums all around South Africa was supplemented by activity in the Sea Life centre at Oberhausen, in western Germany, where growing numbers of media representatives witnessed Paul the Octopus and his spectacular, tentacular ability to pick winners.

Paul the Octopus, the German-based mollusc which correctly predicted all seven of its home nation's results at the 2010 World Cup finals. Here the seer has selected a clam from the Serbian container, indicating a German defeat. Germany lost this match 1-0
©AFP/Getty Images

Unerringly, the German resident predicted all seven of the national team's results in South Africa - even the 1-0 defeat to Serbia in the group stages - by choosing between clams housed in containers bearing the colours of contending teams.

His choice of the Spanish, rather than the German mussel before the semi-finals precipitated a home reaction so stormy that it might even have rocked the quiet waters in which he had happily - as far as anyone could judge - dwelled.

After Germany's 1-0 defeat, there were suggestions from disgruntled fans that Paul's prediction may have affected some of the more superstitious members of the team, and German newspapers demanded that he should pay the penalty most befitting traitorous molluscs: "Throw him in the frying pan!" suggested the Berliner Kurier.

Paul's subsequent prediction that Germany would beat Uruguay in the third and fourth place match may just have saved his tentacles - although he had back-up in the form of the Spanish President, who apparently vouchsafed his safety.

When it came to the Big Decision - determining who would actually win the World Cup - Paul, with every appearance of composure, selected once again the clam from the container adorned with the Spanish flag. After which the 1-0 Spanish win, thanks to an Iniesta goal, was no more than a foregone conclusion.

Andres Iniesta of Spain scores the only goal of the 2010 World Cup final against The Netherlands. Spain had to win - Paul the Octopus had indicated they would
©AFP/Getty Images

Paul's certainty was mirrored by that of Meena Kutti an eight-year-old green parakeet living in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.

For many years, Meena had restricted predictions to minor matters such as marriage and business fortune. But after turning attention to the pressing matter of the World Cup, the feathered sage earned new acclaim.

Presented with a choice of envelopes representing The Netherlands and Spain, Meena's beak went straight to the one marked "La Furia Roja" - The Red Fury. In other words, Spain.

Mani, another parakeet with a reputation for mystical gifts, so nearly played a blinder in its home in Singapore's Little India neighbourhood as - in a process involving the choice of cards bearing the names of matched teams - it correctly predicted all four World Cup semi-finalists, and Spain's subsequent win over Germany. But when it came to the final the 13-year-old Feathered One put his beak in it and tipped The Netherlands.

Ah well. For every winner there has to be a loser. So bring it all on, Brazil...

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, covered the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics as chief feature writer for insidethegames, having covered the previous five summer Games, and four winter Games, for The Independent. He has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, The Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. His latest book Foul Play – the Dark Arts of Cheating in Sport (Bloomsbury £12.99) is available at the insidethegames.biz shop. To follow him on Twitter click here.