"I was born in 1962, the same year as the World Cup," the 60-year-old trained engineer told insidethegames. "So my generation we didn't know about the World Cup. For people like me the best sporting event that we had in Chile was the 2014 South American Games. And between the 1962 World Cup and those South American Games in 2014 - nothing.

"Nothing happened in terms of major sporting events.

"So the South American Games was the first step. And the second step is the Pan American Games to show our beautiful face to everyone and to show that we are doing beautiful things in terms of sport."

As Ilic - who was President of the Organising Committee of those 2014 South American Games and became President of Panam Sports in 2017, the same year he joined the International Olympic Committee - has made clear, numerous challenges remain to be surmounted between now and the proposed opening date of the 2023 Pan American Games on October 20 - a year on from this coming Thursday.

But they will be nothing compared to the challenges that faced the organisers of the 1962 World Cup, which came two years after an earthquake of 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale, the largest ever recorded, in Valdivia, one of the proposed host sites for matches.

With more than 50,000 casualties and more than 2 million people affected, the earthquake drastically reduced the expected level of support from a Government that suddenly had graver calls upon its resources.

It also obliged the Organising Committee to undertake a fundamental restructure of the event as Valdivia and three other proposed venues were out of the picture due to damage incurred. The World Cup went ahead using just four venues - in Santiago, Viña del Mar, Rancagua and Arica.

It was not as if Chile had begun from a hugely advantageous position in terms of finance and infrastructure.

When the FIFA Congress met in Lisbon on June 10 1956 to determine who would host the 1962 World Cup - which was required to be held in South American after successive European stagings - the strong favourite were Argentina, whose candidacy leader Raul Colombo ended his speech by saying: "We can start the World Cup tomorrow. We have it all."

By contrast Carlos Dittborn, leader of the Football Federation of Chile, invoked Article 2 of the FIFA Statutes that addressed the tournament's role in promoting the sport in countries deemed "underdeveloped", and famously commented: "Porque no tenemos nada, queremos hacerlo todo" (Because we have nothing, we want to do everything).

Chile won 32 votes to Argentina's 10.

Stadia and other infrastructure was rebuilt at record speed and the tournament occurred on schedule with no major organisational flaw. Sadly Dittborn did not live to see the success of his efforts, as he died one month before the start of the tournament. The World Cup venue at Arica was named the Estadio Carlos Dittborn in his honour and bears his name to this day.

While the tournament went ahead despite the odds, Chile did not always show its beautiful face - to use Ilic's phrase - on the pitch, although its unsung players surpassed themselves by finishing third after being beaten 4-2 in the semi-finals by defending champions and eventual winners Brazil.

There were numerous very rough matches in this World Cup, but the worst was the infamous "Battle of Santiago", which was fought in the group stage between the hosts, fired up with home fervour, and Italy, never knowingly undersold if things turn nasty.

The atmosphere, reportedly, had been inflamed by reports in the Italian papers that holding the World Cup in Chile was "pure madness" - and exacerbated by accounts from two Italian journalists describing Santiago as a "proudly backwards and poverty-stricken dump full of prostitution and crime".

The two Italian journalists had written unflattering articles about the host country and its capital city, characterising Chile as a place where "the phones don't work, taxis are as rare as faithful husbands, a cable to Europe costs an arm and a leg and a letter takes five days to turn up".

Bad words. Terrible timing.

The first foul occurred within 12 seconds of kickoff. Italy's Giorgio Ferrini was sent off in the eighth minute for a foul on Chile centre forward Honorino Landa, but refused to leave the pitch and had to be dragged off by policemen.

By the end of the match Italian right-back Mario David was also sent off for trying to kick the home winger Leonel Sanchez in the head because Sánchez had landed a left hook on him, because he had fouled Sánchez.

Sánchez employed the same punch to even more effect a little later, breaking Humberto Maschio's nose, but he remained on the pitch during a match that required the intervention of police on three more occasions.

Oh yes - and Chile won 2-0.

Such scenes of brutality, one may confidently predict, will not be disfiguring proceedings at the imminent Pan American Games, which will be closely followed by the Parapan Games from November 17 to 25.

The geographical spread of the Pan American Games will be in marked contrast to that distant World Cup staging.

The National Stadium in Santiago will be the main Games venue, but there will be others across the capital and in various other cities including Viña del Mar, Valparaiso and Algarrobo.

In March this year the first venue for the Games was officially inaugurated - the field hockey arena on the National Stadium grounds, and two months later organisers confirmed a final venue plan consisting of 41 competition venues, two of which will be used exclusively for the Parapan American Games.

At the Panam Sports Executive Committee meeting on May 16, members received the reassuring message from Chile's new President Gabriel Boric, a 35-year-old left-winger in the political sense, who insisted: "You can count on us that we are committed to these Games".

Also at that meeting, Ilic said organisers were "working very well" but added: "I think they need to pay more attention to the matter of infrastructure.

"The Pan American Village is very advanced and as for the other venues, there are some that have already been delivered while others are in that process."

History records that in that long blank space between 1962 and 2014 there were two attempts to host the Pan American Games in Chile, in 1975 and 1987 - but on both occasions the country withdrew due to financial and political problems.

Asked to elaborate on the 2023 prospects, Ilic told insidethegames: "The Organising Committee is working really hard. Today the most important challenge for us is the main infrastructure. The work around the main stadium will be the most important in terms of the number of sports that we will have there.

"I'm sure that we will be ready for the Games and it will be a fantastic moment for our country. Because this is the best opportunity for the sport in our country to have finally a good stadium, good venues, good places to work and train, and where to compete.

"We are involved in all the construction. In March of next year we will see the first venues, and from March until July we will see most of the venues. Today we are running, today we are building, today we are working very hard!

"As you know everything is difficult in our country and in the world today. But I can assure you that everybody is doing their best to have a great Pan American Games in October 2023."

Promotional material for the 2023 Games - which were awarded in 2017 after Chile had lost out to Lima for the 2019 edition - has spoken in terms of an event that will "change sports history" in the country. What is the Ilic take on this?

"I would like to mention many things about that, about what will happen in our country," he said.

"I was during the last week in Paraguay because of the South American Games which were for the first time in Asunción.

"And you can not imagine how proud, how proud the population was about having the South American Games. All the stadiums were full. Everybody was following their athletes. And this was what happened in Lima and it will happen of course in Chile.

"It is not normal in our country to have a great sporting event such as this. And today it is not easy to convince the population what will happen.

"But after the Opening Ceremony I am sure that everyone in Chile will be really proud of what has happened, and what Chile is doing in terms of the Games, in terms of sport, and how we are showing our country to the world.

"More than that, what is really important for me is how proud the Chilean people will feel because of the Games. Because they lacked the opportunity to do something like this for sport until 2014, when Santiago hosted the South American Games, and before that - nothing for so many years.

"Today, because of the Games, we will have fantastic infrastructure, fantastic sporting centres, a fantastic track laid by Mondo. So I am really proud of what will happen."

A total of 39 sports will be contested at the Games. For the three debut sports - skateboarding, sport climbing and breaking - the Pan American Games will double as Paris 2024 qualifiers.

Meanwhile bodybuilding, which made its Games debut at Lima 2019, is not in the main programme, although hopes remain that it might yet be part of the 2023 Games, perhaps as a demonstration sport.

So much for the programme. Ilic meanwhile is hopeful about the home medal prospects.

"In terms of sport, Chile is growing. You can see the results in Asunción. And I think that we deserve, the people deserve, the athletes deserve, better infrastructure, better opportunities - and because of the Pan American Games they will have better opportunities in the future because we will have everything."

Breaking is due to take place in a sports park close to the main stadium where many different sports, particularly those with youth appeal, are due to take place - that is, skateboarding, sport climbing, and 3x3 basketball.

"There will be lots of spectators," Ilic insisted. "It will be very safe for families. We will see a beautiful park with a lot of different sports in the same place."

Next up on the Ilic agenda, however, was a flight to Seoul for a particularly crucial General Assembly of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) which starts on Tuesday (October 18).

At last month's Panam Sports General Assembly in Santiago, Ilic spoke of ANOC having "lost its way" and "taken a different path". The tenor of his comments was supported by Alfred Emmanuel, President of the St Lucia Olympic Committee, who criticised high-ranking officials at ANOC for holding positions of power within the International Olympic Committee (IOC), saying there were cases of "management and shop stewards sleeping in the same bed."

Asked about what was meant by these references, Ilic explained: "What Alfred was saying, what I was saying, was that ANOC is a very important organisation. It represents all the 206 National Olympic Committees, which is very important.

"ANOC for me must receive all the comments coming from the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and must do its best to be sure that the everyone is taking care of the Committees, to give them what they need, to give them what their athletes need.

"What we were talking about was - what is the role of ANOC for the future? And you have different opinions.

"Today you have ANOC with… Beach Games. ANOC with… I don't know what. ANOC having some senior commissions with the IOC.

"What we said is nothing to be worried about, but we said that today it is important to be clear what is the role of ANOC.

"Does there need to be an [International] Olympic Committee, WADA role for ANOC? I have my opinion. We have to have people giving their opinions. I think it will work very well in the future, but today I think that we are not very clear.

"And in my personal opinion - why are we doing Beach Games? Some people can say, yes, because it is important. Other people can say, it is not our role to do Beach Games.

"The best way to be clear is to speak and decide, ;Okay, we take this role and we will follow this role.' Because ANOC is really important for the Olympic Movement."

So his essential message is that ANOC needs to re-focus more on the NOCs?

"Probably, probably," Ilic said. "I am very clear that the first focus for ANOC is the NOCs. So the first mission for ANOC is to listen to the NOCs, to take care of the NOCs, to give them what they need, to be their voice in the IOC. After that we can decide what else ANOC can do."

It should make for an interesting discussion this week…