The Sweeper - A World Football Podcast TOB Sports Media

As an exception, we are uploading a bonus podcast that we make for our Patreon community to give our listeners a foretaste of what they will get each week if they sign up - in addition to our blog posts, Discord server access, weekly World Football Newsletter and shirt competitions. Out of respect to our paying patrons, we only upload a bonus episode to our main feed once per quarter and the podcast will only be available for a limited time (until midday CEST on Monday).

The Sweeper Podcast is fully independent with no network backing and is entirely reliant on our Patreon contributions to keep going. If you find you are tuning into us each week and you enjoy what you hear, please do consider supporting us for only £5 / €6 / $7 per month at patreon.com/SweeperPod. Those contributions are the only reason we are still going and go a long way to helping us cover our editing and production costs plus our various subscriptions. We hope you enjoy the episode! Lee & Paul

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First up on Sweeper Xtra this week are two little-known football competitions taking place in Europe at the moment. There is the UEFA Regions Cup, a biennial tournament for amateur teams across Europe including the likes of Galicia, Jersey & San Marino. And then there's the Europeada, a football tournament for indigenous and national minorities in Europe that is dominated by the northern Italian region of South Tyrol.

After the break, we take an alternative look at the transfer window. Rosario Central have offered Angel Di María an armoured car as part of a transfer proposal to return to his boyhood club, while fifth-tier Spanish side Illueca have signed Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo - but not those ones. Finally, 57-year-old Kazu Miura is on the move again, returning home to Japan with fourth-tier Atletico Suzuka - but he's not the oldest currently active pro in the world...

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, with Lee and Paul competing for a coveted prize.

 

We’re off to the Pacific in Part 2 to look ahead to the Marshall Islands’ long-awaited international debut at the end of July. But where will the match take place? Who will the opponents be? And why is the landmark fixture taking place on a futsal court rather than a football pitch? Finally, we discuss a match between Germans Erzgebirge Aue and Glenavon of Northern Ireland that should have taken place in 1960. So what’s the reason for the 64-year delay? Why is it taking place now? And what other unlikely fan friendships exist in the football world?

 

Join for our patron-only Part 3 at patreon.com/SweeperPod for a deeper dive into two little-known international football competitions that are taking place at the moment: the UEFA Regions Cup and the Europeada. There’s also an alternative look at the transfer window, including Rosario Central’s offer of an armoured car to Angel di María, a lower-league Spanish side signing Zidane and Ronaldo – but not those ones – and Kazu Miura’s loan move to Atletico Suzuka in his homeland at the age of 57.



RUNNING ORDER:


00:00 - Intro

00:41 - UEFA qualifier quiz: Multiple choice

08:53 - UEFA qualifier quiz: Odd one out

17:17 - UEFA qualifier quiz: The right order

22:46 - Marshall Islands' international debut

28:36 - A delayed Cold War friendly

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 giant recently gained a dramatic promotion and celebrated with their supporters at the terminal building of the local airport? We’re joined by Matt Harrison of the Guiricast Podcast to find out more. What are the standout ties of the Champions League first qualifying round? And how did Bodø/Glimt manage to send scouts to check out the wrong Latvian opponent?

 
Join us for the patron-only Part 3 at patreon.com/SweeperPod as we take our listeners behind the scenes for the first time and explain how we make the podcast. Where do we find our stories? What is the process for deciding which ones make the cut and deserve inclusion in the episode? How do we keep tabs on everything that is happening around the world? And what happens when we have a “bad pod day”?



RUNNING ORDER

00:00 - Intro

00:42 - Chaos at the OFC Nations Cup

09:46 - Rescue missions on Saint Helena

16:47 - Diego Forlán's tennis transition

22:29 - Malaga's promotion madness

28:40 - European fallen giants

31:46 - The UCL first qualifying round

34:57 - Bodø/Glimt scout wrong Latvian opponent

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 the Austria squad to a Rod Stewart concert in Berlin.

 

The focus is on club football in Part 2, with three amazing
stories from Portugal, Japan and Iceland. Why could a Santa Clara player’s tattoo to commemorate winning the Portuguese second division prove to be premature? How has a university team managed to pull off one of the biggest upsets in the history of the Emperor’s Cup in Japan? And will lower-league Icelandic club FC Reynir, who are based at the foot of a volcano, get the home cup tie they have been dreaming of for 30 years?

 

For Part 3 and some international football headlines from three other continents, join us over on Patreon at patreon.com/SweeperPod. Why is 16-year-old Bolivian wonderkid Moisés Paniagua unable to travel to the Copa America in the United States? What emotional moment of unity took place at the world’s newest international football derby between Sudan and South Sudan? And why has Singapore’s 40-year-old goalkeeper Hassan Sunny had to beg Chinese football fans to stop sending him money?

 

RUNNING ORDER:



00:00 – Intro

00:40 – EURO 2024 – Christmas for adults

03:40 – EURO 2024 culture craziness

07:02 – EURO 2024 food wars

11:15 – EURO 2024 online polls & searches

15:57 – Guest podcast appearances

17:52 – A tattoo mishap in Portugal

22:01 – A university upset in Japan

27:29 – An Icelandic village dream

34:53 – Listener emails

 

Podcast guest appearances:

Lee on The Totally Show: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6npASOQ1BZPvYYFpnb4ssE

Paul on Guardian Football Weekly: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2uu1QCQC1vH2ISK8euq8kj

Lee on The Window: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4tPj0TvQ5NQfN6CcQPDOCA

Paul on World of CONCACAF: https://open.spotify.com/episode/24hiIr0iqUW7MSEKGnY5ol

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 the all-time biggest EURO shocks?



Part 2 is dedicated to the rest of the international football news. Was San Marino’s recent friendly against Slovakia at a stadium with a water slide behind the main stand in Austria's ugliest town our most random live game to date? Why have FIFA ruled that AFCON top scorer Emilio Nsue has actually been ineligible to play for Equatorial Guinea over the past 11 years? And why did everyone think that Syria had beaten North Korea 1-0 when it was actually the other way around?



You can join us for Part 3 over on Patreon at patreon.com/SweeperPod as we reflect on some international news from the Caribbean and a selection of other stories. What did the Cayman Islands players fear they might lose ahead of their recent World Cup qualifying trip to Cuba? Why did Bonaire contest a recent friendly against a ninth-tier team from the Netherlands? And why has Spanish goalkeeper Miguel Guerreiro given up on his Only Fans dream and made a return to football with Velez in the fourth tier?



RUNNING ORDER

00:00 – Intro

01:05 – EURO 2024 alternative career paths

09:28 – EURO 2024 players outside the top tier

14:17 – EURO 2024 underdogs & outsiders

21:20 – Mystery shirt guessing game

24:36 – San Marino’s water slide away day

33:46 – Emilio Nsue’s Equatoguinean ineligibility

39:02 – North Korea’s secret Syria score

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 more headlines from across the football world. Why are the Afghanistan women’s national team in exile in Australia and how are Melbourne Victory supporting them? How did inspirational amputee footballer Marcin Oleksy turn personal tragedy into incredible success? Why has a Hungarian U14 regional league made headlines across the football world? And could an Italian footballer’s touchline fight with a ball boy end his career?

Join us for Part 3 at patreon.com/SweeperPod as we discuss further international and club football stories. What can we expect from the CONIFA Women’s World Cup in Bodø, Norway? Why was Cameroon FA president Samuel Eto’o forced to reinstate coach Marc Brys? What non-footballing factor led to Columbus Crew’s downfall in the CONCACAF Champions Cup final? And how will new
Fenerbahçe boss José Mourinho fare in Türkiye?

RUNNING ORDER
00:00 – Intro
00:57 – Greenland’s CONCACAF application
10:56 – The friendly vs. Turkmenistan
17:53 – Random friendlies involving CONCACAF nations
21:19 – The Afghanistan women’s team in exile
26:48 – Crutch fight at the AFCON for Amputees
30:42 – A 41-goal swing in an U14 league
34:02 – A suspicious fight with a ball boy
VIDEO: The crutch fight at the AFCON for Amputees: x.com/AfricaFutbolera/status/1795194203619647904
VIDEO: Marcin Oleksy’s Puskas Award-winning
goal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNJhcsMfWeg&ab_channel=FIFA