South Korea has spent $1.5 billion on new stadia and $2.5 billion on infrastructure. And Japan has spent $3 billion on stadia and $5 billion on infrastructure. But the JLL report casts doubt on the return they will receive on this $12 billion investment: the largest sum ever spent on a football tournament. "We suspect that the World Cup will probably have little or no statistically significant macroeconomic impact on the host nations' GDP," said Ben Sanderson, an Associate Director in JLL's Tokyo research team.

The hotel and retail sectors are likely to be the biggest winners. Hotel revenues in the host cities are forecast by JLL to rise by 30% during June, and there is likely to be a similar short-term gain for retailers.

So if there is no economic justification, why do countries bid so aggressively to host the World Cup? "In an era when global sporting events have increasingly become dominated by big businesses and run as a big business, perhaps the reason is a rather old-fashioned one--a sporting one," said Roberts. "The host nation or an immediate neighbour has won nine of the last 16 tournaments. The real attraction for hosts is that it increases the chance of doing well in the tournament," he said.