Ernie Rea and guests discuss the heady mix of football and religion in Brazil in the first of a new series of Beyond Belief.

For a month from the 12th June there will be a football match on television just about every evening during the World Cup. The host nation, Brazil, are among the favourites to win. Many of their players will be looking to a higher power to help their efforts on the field, because Brazil is an intensely religious country and some of its finest footballers are signed up "Ambassadors for Jesus."

Brazil has the largest population of Catholics in the world, but things have been changing as Brazilians migrate from rural areas to the cities and the country becomes a major player on the world economic stage.

Joining Ernie to discuss the Changing Face of Religion in Brazil are Daniel Clark, a Baptist minister and citizen of Brazil as well as Britain; Bettina Schmidt, Senior Lecturer in the Study of Religions at the University of Wales, Trinity St David ; and Andrew Dawson, Senior Lecturer at Lancaster University who has been researching Religion in Brazil since the early 1990s.

Producer: Rosie Dawson.