In Part 1 of this bonus Patreon episode, which we have released in the absence of a fresh podcast on this occasion, the Sweeper team are joined by Tom Middler and Simon Clark – Lee's co-hosts on his other podcast, 'The Other Bundesliga' – to talk about their groundhopping trip to Slovenia & Croatia. Which UEFA Conference League match did they watch? Who plays in Slovenia's 'metal derby'? And why is there a garden shed in Croatia's largest stadium? Join us to find out! The theme in...

This episode is brought to you in association with FIFA+. Click here to get your free FIFA+ account and watch live football around the world: tinyurl.com/FIFAPlusSweeper   Click here to buy the November issue of World Soccer: https://shop.kelsey.co.uk/single-issue/world-soccer-magazine   In Part 1, the focus is on the club game in the continent The Sweeper calls home: Europe. Why did the entire Njegoš team simultaneously collapse in the Montenegrin third division? And was there any truth...

This episode is brought to you in association with FIFA+. Click here to get your free FIFA+ account and watch live football around the world: tinyurl.com/FIFAPlusSweeper   In Part 1, we take a look at one of the world’s most remote footballing outposts with Faraway Football blogger Matthew Eide, who has just returned from a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Bhutan courtesy of football kit designers Icarus. Which footballing figure flew the plane that transported him from Kathmandu to Paro? How...

In Part 1, Lee reflects on his trip to watch high-flying Lugano take on Winterthur in the Swiss Super League. What’s the story behind their collaboration with MLS outfit Chicago Fire? What else has been behind the club’s rise to domestic cup winners and title challengers? And could Switzerland have its first national champion from the Italian-speaking region since 1949? We also hear from YouTuber and friend of the pod TheTimTraveller about Campione d’Italia (the exclave on the other side of...

This episode is brought to you in collaboration with FIFA+. Click here to get your free FIFA+ account and watch live football around the world: tinyurl.com/FIFAPlusSweeper   Part 1 covers the best international window for underdogs in living memory, with San Marino’s first-ever competitive triumph, Anguilla’s first victory since 2010 & American Samoa’s first win since 2015 among the highlights. There’s also a mention for the Turks & Caicos Islands’ 14 year-old goalie, a rare...

Would you believe it?! San Marino, the worst team in the world by FIFA ranking (210), have ended the longest winless run in international football history (140 games dating back to April 2004) and won a competitive match for the first time in their history! The 'Titani' beat Liechtenstein 1-0 in the UEFA Nations League. Along with other content creators, friends & listeners, Sweeper duo Lee Wingate & Paul Watson were live in Serravalle to witness this monumental moment and talk about...

Part 1 is devoted to the final round of UEFA club competition qualifying & the upcoming league phase in the three tournaments. We look at the Larne, TNS, RFS & Slovan Bratislava underdog success stories, amazing social media posts involving the Smurfs and Mr. Bean, the changed format of the three club competitions and the computerised draw, plus the best European groundhops you could make to take in the league phase action. In Part 2, we divide our time between domestic club football...

Part 1 is devoted to the UEFA club competition qualifying rounds. There’s penalty pandemonium in Poland and theNetherlands, an amazing achievement for Armenians Noah and a trio of clubs on the verge of becoming the first representatives from Andorra, Northern Ireland & Wales to reach a continental group. There’s also a word for the biggest and shortest European away days of the summer, football’s huge carbon footprint and two clubs with close links to the political leaders of their...

In Part 1, we bring you all the top stories from around the football world: Maikeli Lomu, an American with Tongan heritage, has sold his pottery studio in Utah and relocated to his ancestral homeland in pursuit of a World Cup dream. The 2024 edition of the Greenlandic Football Championship – the shortest season in world football at one week – is taking place on Disko Island off the west coast. And the FA Cup preliminary rounds are serving up some great stories, including the earliest goals in...

Co-host of The Sweeper Lee Wingate has a message for listeners of the show about the change of podcast frequency from weekly to fortnightly, which many of you will have heard us announce on the last episode. If you want podcasts in the in-between weeks too, plus a whole host of other bonus world football content, then join our Patreon community now over at patreon.com/SweeperPod.

In Part 1, we round up all the latest highlights from the UEFA club competition qualifying rounds. We talk about two villages of under 1,000 people in the Faroes & San Marino that claimed big European wins, the Slovenian keeper that went on a René Higuita-style dribble against Connah’s Quay Nomads of Wales and FC Copenhagen’s upcoming trip to face ‘pub team’ Bruno’s Magpies at a stadium overlooking the African coastline. That is followed in Part 2 by an announcement about a change to...

Part 1 is dedicated to the best part of the European football calendar: the UEFA club competition qualifying rounds. We chat about the Gibraltarian pub team that claimed a win in the Conference League, the victorious Polish and Romanian teams in the Europa League and the part-timers from the Faroe Islands excelling in the Champions League. In Part 2, we bring you a random mix of stories from across the football world: Paul has been offered a coaching job on a mystery island in the South...

Part 1 is dedicated to the overachieving underdogs at the continental competitions taking place this summer: Canada at the Copa América, Vanuatu at the OFC Nations Cup and Georgia at the EUROs. Meanwhile, in Part 2, there is a rare move to a European club for an Eritrean player and an ex-Gibraltar international is jailed for drug dealing. Join us for Part 3 at patreon.com/SweeperPod as we round up some headlines from the home nations and bring you some spectacular transfer fails too. RUNNING...

With the UEFA club competition qualifying rounds getting under way this week, it’s time for a full Sweeper preview of the action in Part 1 – in the form of a trivia quiz, of course! Join us and play along in our three rounds – Multiple Choice, Odd One Out & The Right Order – as we look ahead to the Champions, Europa & Conference League qualifiers: the debutants, the second-tier teams, the geographical extremes, the funny back stories and much more besides. And there’s plenty at stake,...

Part 1 kicks off with some stories from around the football world. Why were the Solomon Islands locked out of their dressing room at the OFC Nations Cup? How come New Caledonia dramatically pulled out of the tournament? What are the most remote football tournaments in the world in terms of the distance to the closest inhabited land? And which footballer has recently established himself on the over-45s tennis circuit in South America?   We’re back to Europe for Part 2. Which Spanish fallen...

The European Championships are in full swing not only on the pitch but off it too. In Part 1, we pick out three themes from the opening stages of the tournament in Germany that have made us laugh: food wars, culture craziness & online polls/searches. Tune in to find out which country at EURO 2024 has the best national dish, who is empirically speaking the sexiest of the 24 head coaches, why Niklas Füllkrug has the best ‘Personal life’ section on Wikipedia and why Ralf Rangnick has taken...

EURO 2024 is just around the corner and we have put the tournament under the spotlight in typically Sweeper style in Part 1. How did Austria’s Maximilian Entrup go from a third-tier amateur/PE teacher to a place at EURO 2024 in the space of a year? Does Georgia’s Budu Zivzivadze harbour any regrets about choosing football over chess? Who is the only player at the tournament currently on the books of a third-tier European club? And where does Latvia’s 0-0 draw with Germany in 2004 rank among...

Greenland tops the agenda in Part 1 following the news of their CONCACAF application and their friendly against Turkmenistan – the Arctic island's first game against a senior men’s national team since 2013. But what are their odds of making it into the governing body of North and Central America & the Caribbean? Where will they play their home games? And how did they engineer a friendly against the national team of one of the world’s most repressive countries? In Part 2, we look at some...

Part 1 contains an international round-up of European minnows inside and outside of UEFA. In which version of football has Gibraltar become a European champion? Why has Corsica recently hosted their counterparts from Sardinia, Sicily & St. Martin? Will we watch San Marino vs. Slovakia from the top of a water slide? And which football stadium straddles an EU/non-EU border? Up next in Part 2 are a series of records and achievements from across the football world. What remarkable feat did...

Part 1 brings you a full round-up of all the news from the Benelux countries. What controversial actions recently earned a Dutch referee a lifelong ban from football? Why are two storied Belgian clubs facing an existential threat? And what strange series of events could lead to European football being played on a Luxembourgish campsite this summer? Next up in Part 2 is a round-up of all the action from the rest of Europe. How have Sturm Graz finally managed to dethrone Red Bull Salzburg and...

Part 1 of the latest Sweeper sees Lee & Paul profile three clubs from around the football world: Italians Como, Australia’s Central Coast Mariners & Petrocub of Moldova. Join us to find out where Italy’s richest club might be playing their Serie A home games next term, why the Central Coast Mariners have flown 100,000km in economy class this season and how a Ghanaian takeover has propelled Petrocub to Super Liga success. In Part 2, the team swap the serious journalism for a selection...

Is this the best-ever Sweeper line-up? In Part 1, Lee & Paul discuss stories from the lower tiers in Spain, Germany & the Netherlands. How has a team from a Spanish village of 100 people gained promotion? What are the smallest European settlements with a football team? Why did a German footballer hire a plane for a derby on a neighbouring island? And how can the longest journey in Dutch football be between two towns that are 4km apart?   Part 2 contains more stories from across the...

Having just visited Malta and witnessed an historic weekend of football, Lee tells Paul all about the key events in Europe’s only island micro-state in Part 1. Who came out on top in the title-decider between Ħamrun Spartans & Floriana? Why do Valletta hold a funeral parade through the streets when they win the league? How has the island reacted to the capital club’s first relegation? And what is it like to accidentally get caught up in a bus parade? Part 2 is dedicated to three big...