Every four years, men get their replica shirts out of the wardrobe, stock up on beer and sofa-friendly snacks, and warm up their vocal chords in preparation for four weeks of shouting tactical strategies to their team while hurling abuse at rival teams and, occasionally, at the ref.

The Maltese may be the only nation in the world that marries underachievement on the football pitch with overachievement in front of the telly. We have even translated political issues and the early 20th century language question into a heated rivalry between Italian football and the three lions.

In M magazine, out tomorrow with The Times, Antonio Tufigno gives his predictions for the 2010 FIFA World Cup while Patrick Cooke visits local football clubs and dusts off his crystal ball to see who will find glory in South Africa, and who will already be on the return flight home after the group stages.

But it's not just football that makes the male world go round. Michael Vella goes into the kitchen with two male chefs and their mum to find that they owe a lot of their culinary skills to the maternal recipe book.

They say that gentlemen prefer blondes but marry brunettes, and that redheads are notoriously bad-tempered. Are these just silly statements, asks Davinia Hamilton as she goes beyond the stereotypes with a blonde, a brunette and a redhead.

M also takes a look at Norman Hamilton's photo album, Claudia Calleja meets brothers Chris and Jose Scicluna and Christian Peregin interviews AFM Commander Martin Xuereb.

M magazine is published by Allied Newspapers Limited and designed by MediaMaker Limited. Its editor is Stanley Borg.