PICK OF THE DAY
Gazza's Coming Home, Channel 4 How apt the title of this documentary now looks after the tears of the weekend was Gazza was axed from England's World Cup squad. Unlikely to contain any fresh reaction to Sunday's shock news as this programme was first shown two years ago, but anyone who missed out first time will get a unique and often fascinating insight into the life of the most talented and troubled footballer of his generation. The hilarious scene where Gazza pretends to show a camera crew into his new house but in fact takes them to a confused elderly neighbour's will have you wondering whether Glenn Hoddle is the spawn of Satan. Which, of course, he isn't.

ITV
3.30am (or 3.45am on Anglia, HTV Wales, Meridian and West Country; not showing in Scotland) The Big Match Replayed Relive the days when Brian Moore was actually any good as a commentator.

CHANNEL 4
11.05pm Planet Football Steve Cram and Simon O'Brien continue their look ahead to the World Cup finals by focusing on another country's build-up to the big event.

CHANNEL 5
3.45am Asian Football If you're watching this, and you're neither an insomniac or from Thailand (or some such place), then you need to be asking yourself some serious questions.

EUROSPORT
7pm Football A look at how the teams in Group C qualified for the finals that's Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Denmark, plus hosts France. There's also a profile of Alan Shearer, now England's leading joker in the pack following the departure of Paul Gascoigne. Christ.

BOLLOCKS! SOMEHOW, the French have developed a reputation for navel-gazing pretentiousness above and beyond the level of your average panelist on BBC 2's Late Review. We can't possibly imagine how it got started. Just consider this, from an essay written by football journalist Gerard Ernault in Le Monde's Diplomatique supplement: "The round ball draws its origins from the solar myth, the universal myth par excellence. The trajectory of the sun-ball? It could be none other than the course of destiny, our destiny." Wouldn't look out of place in the Daily Star, would it?

TRIVIA BIG news of the weekend was, of course, Paul Gascoigne's shock exclusion from the England World Cup squad. The 31-year-old midfielder was discarded by Glenn Hoddle at the 11th hour and that decision probably spells the end of an international career which began in 1989. Against which country did he make his first appearance? Yesterday, we asked you which two teams played in BSkyB's first ever live game in August 1992. The clubs were Nottingham Forest and Liverpool, accompanied, of course, by the lovely Sky Strikers.

top