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As a Brazilian, I think I should add some words.
First off, there was one (and only one) country that won the World Cup outside of its continent: Brazil won in Sweden, 1958.
About politics: for a long time, only 16 countries played the finals. There was a Brazlian guy, João Havelange, who ruled FIFA for many years; every time there was an election, Havelange wanted to increase the number of teams (until reaching the current 32). Havelange said he wanted to give more chances to other countries and continents, and his adversaries said he wanted just to get more votes (which he indeed did).
As far as I remember, the weaker Continents (Africa and Asia), which have many countries (and many votes, one country = one vote), were given a few new openings in the finals, but Europe was given many more (South America was given just one more). So, Europeans donīt have much to complain about; if it is hard today (I personally agree that Holland should be in again), it was harder earlier.
I donīt really care much. Is Saudi Arabia too weak? Right, let Germany beat it 8x0, but Germany will have to beat Brazil, Argentina or France on its way to title. But I am sure that the Saudis, the Chinese, the Costa Ricans and all the other countries will enjoy much their participation in the Cup (which is, afterall, the main goal of all this story).
Peace,
brazz
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