JOHNNY Vaughan's World Cup Extra is proving a worthy successor to Fantasy Football League as the Beeb's flagship footie/comedy programme.

The host may not be as soccer-obsessed as Frank Skinner and David Baddiel, but he certainly matches them for sardonic wit.

Poor old David Busst was a guest last week and revealed his mangled leg, scarred from upwards of 20 operations.

"You'd never have known," reflected Vaughan. Another belter accompanied footage of a member of the China team, with 'Li X J' on his back, "That's not a name, it's a car registration number."

The show's feature segments such as 'Ray's Parlour', in which a certain Arsenal player gives his thumbs up or down to the stand-out hairstyles of the World Cup, can be as off the wall as anything Fantasy Football League had to offer - although, maybe nothing to rival 'Jeff Astle Sings', when the late West Brom and England star finished each show with a karaoke number.

Vaughan's programme is funny. But can Gary Lineker please stop his inane and repetitive jokes at the expense of Francesco Totti's surname which plague each game involving the Italian forward. Well done to Martin O'Neill for ignoring him the other day.