It is common to walk into a hotel lobby and see dozens of radio reporters yelling into their cellphones for hours on end to the bewilderment of the locals.

DAY OUTING

With hours of airtime to fill, even the most apparently inane subject can be turned into a 20-minute item -- such as when reporters were given a free trip up Mount Pilatus by the Lucerne tourist board.

With no Brazilian players to talk to at the summit, they filled out their reports by interviewing each other.

The radio pack really come into its own in the so-called mixed zone where players are available to the media after practice sessions or matches.

As the players leave the training pitch, they walk alongside a barrier on the way back to the team bus.

On the other side is the several-hundred strong pack, microphones and even mobile phones at the ready so that the players' comments -- "I'm happy to be in the team, we respect the opposition, football is a little box of surprises," and such like -- are broadcast live back home.

The players handle it all with great patience and many are adept at providing the right answers -- "right" meaning ones which do not offend their team-mates, their coach or the opposition.

Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, Emerson, Juninho Pernambucano and Cafu are regarded as the most quoteable.

Despite becoming increasingly exasperated at suggestions he is fat, Ronaldo has been prepared to face the media and is never afraid to duck questions.

Ronaldinho, Adriano and Kaka, while co-operative, have reputations for regurgitating the same answers to every question. Ronaldinho, with his ever-present grin, is regarded as the reporters' nightmare as he mumbles into the microphone, still grinning.