Zagallo fails to see funny side of Romario's toilet humour

The magazine show format has become a popular one in football programming. Live matches are all well and good but shows like Futbol Mundial, European Football Weekly, Spanish League highlights and the Asian Football Show give a bit more depth.

Between them they provide a mix of news, interviews, match highlights and features which give a broader coverage than the immediacy of the live games.

Futbol Mundial has long been among the best. With a remit covering the world of football, it covers two or three items a week.

This season there is a new show on ESPN, Western Union World Football, consisting mainly of feature items, although it does include news snippets, too.

In recent editions the show has included features on: the financial crisis among Argentine clubs, especially Racing Club and Huracan; Inter Milan players attending a circus show with hundreds of children from Inter supporters' clubs; and the Football Expo at Cannes, including interviews with Bobby Charlton, Franz Beckenbauer, Keith Cooper and Andy Roxburgh.

One of the more novel reports was about Brazilian star players who own bars and restaurants in Rio, namely Junior, Zico, Ronaldo and Romario.

The grey-haired Junior runs a bar known as 'Maestro's', which was his nickname. Customers can catch the maestro himself playing with the band. Guests arriving at Zico's restaurant are greeted by a life-size animated robot of the player talking about his playing career. Ronaldo's 'R9', perhaps not surprisingly, is a flashy discotheque appealing to the younger clientele.