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By Lee Wingate and Paul Watson
4.9
5353 ratings
The podcast currently has 65 episodes available.
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 it afterwards in a special one-off bonus pod in a local bar after the final whistle. We hope you enjoy it - and please try out our other episodes if you do!
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 and the international game. A broken goal is met with the suggestion of blowtorch repair in the Icelandic top tier, Papua New Guinea’s Admiralty Islands FC relocate to the mainland for six months and the international break looms large with three standout fixtures: San Marino vs. Liechtenstein, Comoros vs. Madagascar and Guyana vs. Suriname.
If you don’t want to wait until 18 September for our next episode, then you can join us for a bonus podcast on 11 September at patreon.com/SweeperPod. You will also be able to read our blog about the 2024 Greenlandic Football Championship, enter the draw to win a B67 shirt, become part of our growing Discord community and get exclusive content from our trip to watch San Marino take on Liechtenstein in Serravalle.
RUNNING ORDER:
00:00 – Intro
03:04 – UEFA qualifiers: Upsets & underdogs
09:00 – UEFA qualifiers: Media & memes
14:13 – UEFA qualifiers: Unfamiliar formats
18:56 – UEFA qualifiers: Groundhopping guidance
24:29 – Collapsing goals in Iceland & Romania
30:56 – Papua New Guinea’s relocating islanders
36:56 – San Marino & the international break
44:12 – Patreon perks & B67 shirt giveaway
Editor: Ralph Foster
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 countries: Puskás Akadémia of Hungary & Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih of Ukraine.
In Part 2, we turn our attentions to continental competitions in Africa, Asia & the Caribbean. We hear about Djiboutian club Arta Solar 7 in the CAF Champions League preliminaries and their takeover by a solar power company, find out whether Paul Watson will abscond to the Maldives to take charge of AFC Challenge League participants Maziya and learn why Haitian club America des Cayes did not turn up in Curacao for the CFU Caribbean Shield. There are also shirt giveaways for Village Superstars of St. Kitts & Nevis & the Chagos Islands national team.
As per usual, you can join us for our next bonus episode if you don’t want to wait until Wednesday 4 September for another pod. That episode will be out on Wednesday 28 August and will take in some stories from the Nordic nations, including a collapsed goal and a blow torch in Iceland, an island club triumphing in the Danish Cup and the Swedish club with the most youth teams in Europe. We will also be sharing our own personal football bucket lists and telling you about an upcoming Q&A session for patrons on our Discord server.
RUNNING ORDER:
00:00 – Intro
00:51 – UEFA qualifiers: Penalty pandemonium
07:32 – UEFA qualifiers: History-making hopefuls
11:11 – UEFA qualifiers: Epic away days
15:51 – UEFA qualifiers: Supportive statesmen
21:02 – San Marino & Nauru competition winners
22:38 – Africa: The space and weapons derbies
30:34 – Asia: Coaching vacancy in the Maldives
36:48 – Caribbean: America des Cayes' no-show
39:35 – St. Kitts & Nevis and Chagos Islands giveaways
Join Sangalo's mailing list at the bottom of the homepage to enter the Village Superstars shirt competition: www.sangalo.com.
Get yourself a Surprise Shirts mystery box at www.surpriseshirts.co.uk.
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 the history of the world’s oldest club competition.
Then in Part 2 we turn our attentions to the men’s and women’s football tournaments at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris: the chaos and controversy between Argentina & Morocco, Canada’s spying scandal, the 6-5 thriller between Australia & Zambia, and the Malawian footballer-sprinter racing the 100 metres. There is also a selection of great listener emails, a competition to accompany the Sweeper team to San Marino vs. Liechtenstein in the UEFA Nations League and a giveaway for a limited-edition Nauru national team shirt.
If you don’t want to hang on until Wednesday 21 August for another dose of world football goodness, then sign up to our Patreon at patreon.com/SweeperPod to get the bonus episodes. In the episode set for release on Wednesday 14 August, we talk about Japan legend Keisuke Honda’s one-match contract with Paro FC of Bhutan, Kuwaiti club Kazma’s phantom pre-season friendly, Libertad de Pirayu of Paraguay's trophy that disappeared from an open-top bus parade and Partick Thistle’s failed substitution due to accidentally cropped team sheet.
RUNNING ORDER
00:00 - Intro
00:32 - The Football Cliches Quiz
02:01 - Tongan World Cup dreams
07:18 - The FA Cup preliminary rounds
13:25 - Disko Island in Greenland
18:53 - San Marino & Nauru competitions
24:24 - Olympics: Opening game outrage
28:45 - Olympics: Drone debacles
32:06 - Olympics: Goals galore
36:28 - Olympics: Sprinting strikers
38:51 - Listener emails
Editor: Ralph Foster
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 the podcast, which will return to its previously fortnightly rhythm. We then round off the episode by talking about the ‘Pariah Derby’ between the North Korean and Russian women’s teams and turn our attentions to pre-season friendlies: the pitch invaders at Rapid Vienna vs. AC Milan, Augsburg’s immigration disaster and a playground-style switch in Heilbronn.
If you don’t want to wait until Wednesday 7 August for our next podcast, then join us on Patreon for our bonus podcasts. In the episode on Wednesday 31 July, we will examine the intriguing back stories of three promoted clubs from Eastern Europe, take a look at the Coupe de France action in St. Pierre & Miquelon and discuss the upcoming Milne Cup between Orkney & the Shetland Islands in Scotland. You can sign up at patreon.com/SweeperPod.
RUNNING ORDER:
00:00 - Intro
00:38 - Victorious villages
04:52 - 27th time lucky for La Fiorita
11:38 - The NK Bravo keeper on the run
13:41 - Icelandic accumulator threats
15:19 - Pub team with a view of Africa
21:31 - Podcast frequency announcement
23:52 - North Korea's 'Pariah Derby'
29:22 - Rapid vs. Milan & pre-season friendlies
Video of the NK Bravo goalkeeper on a run: x.com/FootballBurp/status/1814063958224978365
Editor: Ralph Foster
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 Pacific, Thimphu City of Bhutan have come up with a great initiative to protect the white-bellied heron and The Sweeper has sponsored a football team for the first time at the Icarus Cup in the USA.
Join us for Part 3 over on Patreon at patreon.com/SweeperPod to hear about the Brazilian policeman who fired a rubber bullet at a goalkeeper, an Anguillan side that allows their supporters a top-flight run-out and the Icelandic footballer presented with a bottle of champagne by a Fantasy Football Winner.
RUNNING ORDER:
00:00 - Intro
00:40 - EURO 2024 disappointment
02:44 - Second-tier Corvinul's quirky situation
09:39 - UEFA win for pub team Bruno's Magpies
13:10 - San Marino, Wales & the Faroe Islands
19:38 - A mystery island coaching job for Paul
23:46 - Thimphu City's white-bellied heron initiative
30:50 - The first Sweeper-sponsored football team
Buy your Sweeper-sponsored football shirt from the Icarus Cup:
https://icarusfc.com/products/malmo?_pos=1&_psq=malmo&_ss=e&_v=1.0
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
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:
00:41 - 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
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