28 Years Ago in TIME

Hundreds of thousands of fans began their pilgrimage to Germany last week for the WORLD CUP. As the 1978 Argentina tournament showed, football is only part of the spectacle.

If the soccer itself has been only fitfully exciting, the huge tournament is also a fiesta, and in that it has not disappointed. Among the celebrators is a young Italian electrician ... spending four years of savings to see one month of soccer. From nearer have come Peruvians in red ponchos, arriving in buses bannered ARRIBA PERU! (Up Peru!). Shaggy Scots, in kilts and tartan scarves, some of whom hitchhiked from New York City, wandered about ... waving bottles of local beer and giant flags bearing their national emblem, the cross of St. Andrew ... El Mundial, (The Global), as this eleventh international competition is nicknamed in Spanish, really is a world cup: the organizers claim that more than a billion of the earth's 4 billion people will watch some part of the month-long soccer tournament [on television].

Subscribers get FREE access to the entire TIME archive at timearchive.com