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...

Part 1 is all about Africa, where a kit controversy has escalated into a geopolitical dispute between Algeria & Morocco ahead of the CAF Confederations Cup semi-final between USM Alger & RS Berkane. Elsewhere on the continent, Rising FC from Rodrigues Island in the Indian Ocean have made the long voyage to mainland Mauritius to take part in the cup, winning their last-32 tie! It's back to Europe - or at least, UEFA - in Part 2 as Paul & Lee discuss the 'Isolation Derby' between...

The latest Sweeper starts off in windy Wales with our visit to the game between Llantwit Major & Enfield Town in the Fenix Trophy and a wider look at the tournament regarded as the Champions League of non league. Then we're off to Scandinavia for some goalkeeper heroics, cupsets & geographical extremes, before finishing Part 1 in little Liechtenstein, where FC Vaduz will likely set a world record next month. With Bayer Leverkusen having claimed the first league title in their...

This episode of The Sweeper begins with a focus on South American domestic cup competitions. We hear about the Juan Fernández Islands – 670km off the coast of Chile – taking part in the Copa Chile as a special invitee and the unusual journey opponents Santiago Wanderers must take to reach them. Up next is Ecuador’s non-existent cup competition and the story of a team called Bonita Banana ('Beautiful Banana'), followed by some terrible pitches and hideously named players in Peru. With...

First up on this episode of The Sweeper, we delve deeper into North Korea’s mysterious cancellation of their World Cup qualifier against Japan and look back at memorable moments in the hermit kingdom’s football history. Then we’re off to Georgia to hear about the nation’s maiden qualification for a major tournament, before we chat through Austria's Rangnick resurgence as they shape up to be EURO 2024 dark horses. After the break it’s time to show some love for groundhoppers and to hear...

Fresh from his trip to San Marino, Paul reflects on the attempt by FIFA’s lowest ranked country to break a 20-year winless streak against Saint Kitts & Nevis, before Lee rounds up the other international news - from the Basque Country's draw with Uruguay to the 'End of the Alphabet Derby - and Producer Tom chips in with a live report as Austria break an all-time record. After the break, we hop on over to the USA to hear about New York City vs. Toronto at Yankee Stadium - there are few...

This episode of The Sweeper begins by looking at the Virgin Derby between the British Virgin Islands and U.S. Virgin Islands in 2026 World Cup qualification. Meanwhile, a non-FIFA team, the Basque Country face Uruguay and may harbour UEFA aspirations. The Danish Superligaen strikes a huge blow to the European Super League, which might now be forced to rebrand, a Romanian coach returns to the same club for a 10th spell int the dugout and we play a Sweeper version of Who Wants To Be A...

The latest episode of The Sweeper kicks off with a tour of Oceania and the incredible story of two French journalists with an American (Samoan) Dream, before moving on to Pacific neighbours Micronesia & Nauru and their new coaches. David Johnson & Charlie Pomroy, who both partly credit the pod for their appointments, have sent us voice notes from their respective islands. Sticking with the island theme but moving back over to Europe, Part 2 starts in the Scilly Isles: the British...

On this episode of The Sweeper, we discuss our trip to Prague along with Patreon competition winner Joe McTaggart to watch the derby between Slavia and Sparta in the Czech Cup and enjoy a 24-hour whirlwind of Ultra-brewed beer, pyro and tifos. VAR controversies have rocked Croatia, where the head of referees Bruno Maric has resigned, derbies both real and mock have excited Argentina and there’s a strange case in Mongolia of a club who changed identity halfway through the season. To hear the...

The Premier League and the rest of Europe’s top five divisions totally dominate the football headlines, but have you ever wondered what other interesting news and stories the rest of European football and world football have to offer? If so, The Sweeper is the football podcast for you! On this episode, Turkish footballer Emirhan Delibaş is sacked by his club Beşiktaş for his profile on the dating app Bumble and Irishman Dylan Connolly receives a Facebook invitation to play in the OFC...

We kick off the podcast by announcing the news that we have moved to a shorter weekly format with a longer third segment available to patrons only. Then we’re straight to the familiar backdrop of San Marino and lowest ranked national football team in the world’s loss of two goalkeepers in two days. We then analyse San Marino’s chances of breaking their 20-year winless run in 2024 – as they have a double-header against St. Kitts and Nevis and Nations League clashes with Liechtenstein and...

Part 1 of this Sweeper podcast kicks off with an alternative look at the transfer window and Arturo Vidal’s dramatic helicopter & horseback unveiling at Colo Colo, before moving onto some of the best, worst & oddest transfer announcements in history. Continuing the transfer theme, we hear about a strange signing by Vilaverdense in Portugal's second tier and then go to Italy for the bizarre story of a young player who stole a team-mate’s car and got caught up in a high-speed police...

This is the opening segment of our latest bonus podcast, which we make for our Patreon community in the weeks without regular episodes & are now giving you the chance to listen to for a limited time only. If you want to hear the rest of the episode, become a patron at patreon.com/sweeperpod. Enjoy the show! Episode description The latest Sweeper bonus podcast begins with AFCON and a look at Ivory Coast’s remarkable renaissance thanks to a penalty shootout victory over Senegal. Speaking...

The opening segment of this Sweeper episode is all about our first trip of 2024 - to the Portuguese island of Madeira, where we took in the derby between local teams Marítimo and Nacional. We also delve a little bit deeper into the unique football culture on the island with the help of some supporters and try to answer the big question that has been on our minds since the end of last season in Portugal's Primeira Liga: why are there no island clubs in the top flight for the first time since...

The first Sweeper episode of 2024 kicks off with some Azerbaijan anecdotes in Part 1. We discuss Adrian Mutu’s harsh sacking and some tasty treats from Turan Tovuz. From Mutu we switch to another ex-Premier League player in Pascal Chimbonda and his antics in charge of ninth-tier English side Skelmersdale. Finally, we talk about the Vatican City where registration is open for the league season in the world’s smallest country - but not just anyone can take part. In Part 2 we go remote and...

The final Sweeper episode of 2023 starts off with a look at continental competitions across the world in Part 1. We talk about the CONCACAF Champions Cup with its incredible away trips and interesting array of clubs – from Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami to Robinhood of Suriname, who have won a Caribbean double this year – and the AFC Champions League, where Ventforet Kofu of Japan have sensationally become the first second-division club to ever reach the knockout stages. Part 2 kicks off with a...

Download Momento: acmomento.onelink.me/ckkf/SweeperPod Once we found out that the draw for the Belgian Cup quarter-finals was conducted using a former footballer and an arcade claw machine, there was nowhere else we were going to start this episode. But domestic cup competitions across Europe have produced plenty of other notable stories over the past fortnight too, including another Bundesliga scalp for third-tier Saarbrücken in the DFB-Pokal, Copa del Rey elimination at the hands of...