World Cup briefs on Thursday:

Eat your beans

Brazil's squad have been given their World Cup food for thought. Brazilian fare will be on the menu -- rice and beans with meat - even if 19 of the squad are based abroad and have got used to eating foreign food. "Most of them have spent years playing abroad and are missing Brazilian habits and food from here," says nutritionist Silvia Ferreira.

The last Diego

Diego Maradona's doping rap at the 1994 World Cup in the United States caused a storm. Now readers of "The Last Maradona", by journalists Andres Burgo and Alejandro Wall, can find out more about the former star's drug-related travails. The work is subtitled "when they cut Diego's legs off" and looks at various issues surrounding the controversial case background.

Two million Bleus and counting

A month to go to the World Cup and the French team already have more than two million Facebook followers.

After cheering the team through the playoffs against Ukraine support has taken off on social media with some 5,000 supporters a day signing up. The French Football Federation this week responded by offering two fans the trip of a lifetime to watch Les Bleus in Brazil.

World Cup art

Argentine artist Peti Lopez, a former youth level player, is paying tribute to the World Cup, painting emblematic scenes from former competitions on old footballs -- one for each tournament to date. "What better than to unite my two great passions, art and soccer," he noted.

Ozil out to make charitable mark

German star Mesut Ozil says he is determined to make his World Cup mark off the pitch as well as on it by funding vital surgery for 11 Brazilian children.

"I have often read that little remains in the organizing country after a World Cup. We want to prove the contrary in Brazil," said Ozil.

Presidential seal of approval

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano has opened an exhibition honoring 104 years of the 'squadra azzurra' at the Italian Football Federation's headquarters in Rome. On show are items such as Amedeo Biavati's shirt from the 1938 World Cup final win in France and also that of Giovanni De Pra, a bronze medalist at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, the oldest surviving Italian national shirt. Other items include 1968 World Cup jerseys from keeper Dino Zoff and 1982 striker Paolo Rossi, as well as a pipe used by former coach Enzo Bearzot.

Taking sanctuary?

Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari went to mass at the Our Lady of Carvaggio in the southern town of Farrupilha prior to announcing his successful 2002 World Cup squad. This week, he paid a return visit to the sanctuary, three days before unveiling his squad for the tournament on home soil.