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The Sweeper - A World Football Podcast

The Sweeper - A World Football Podcast

Sports Soccer
Lee Wingate and Paul Watson 114 episodes Nov 10, 2026

The Sweeper Podcast explores the most extraordinary stories from across the football world, covering everything from the World Cup and Champions League to obscure competitions. Expert journalists Lee Wingate and Paul Watson delve into the intersection of football, travel, geography, geopolitics, history, and culture. The podcast aims to uncover hidden stories of the global game beyond the Premier League and big-league European football. New episodes are released every Tuesday, with bonus content on Patreon.

Episodes

Chengdu Rongcheng: Asian football’s biggest-ever bottle job?
Chengdu Rongcheng: Asian football’s biggest-ever bottle job? Nov 10, 2026 26:11 At the start of October, Chengdu Rongcheng had been top of the Chinese Super League all season and were given a 99.9% chance of winning the title: they had a 12-point lead over challengers Dalian Yingbo with four games to go. What then followed was a bottle job of stratospheric proportions: Chengdu lost all four of their remaining matches – including a clash with Dalian, who stole in on H2H to
Celebrities & exploding kits: Sealand's national football team
Celebrities & exploding kits: Sealand's national football team Nov 6, 2026 28:34 The Principality of Sealand is an unrecognised micronation that is located on a fort in the North Sea, approximately 11 kilometres off the coast of Suffolk in the Unted Kingdom. Despite its tiny size – at 50 metres long, it is not even large enough for a football pitch – Sealand has a national team which is about to re-enter the fray after 12 years of inactivity. So where on earth do they pl
How third-tier clubs took over Europe’s craziest national cup competition
How third-tier clubs took over Europe’s craziest national cup competition Nov 3, 2026 27:58 The Slovenian Cup is mental: Pizza and a referee almost conspired to deny Rogaška the title in 2023/24, while 2025/26 winners Aluminij come from a village of just 1,000 people. And with third-tier teams vastly outnumbering top-flight clubs and making up almost half of the last-16 line-up in 2026/27, the quirks and oddities have only increased this season. So why does this sleepy and sedate l
UEFA’s best third tournament: Cup Winners’ Cup or Conference League?
UEFA’s best third tournament: Cup Winners’ Cup or Conference League? Oct 30, 2026 31:06 The old European Cup Winners’ Cup made headlines like almost no other continental competition – but was eventually discontinued by UEFA following the 1998/99 campaign. And yet 22 years later, Europe’s governing body reintroduced a third-tier competition for its 55 member nations: the Conference League, which was launched in 2021/22. So what were the standout moments in Cup Winners’ Cup histo
How a club from a Swedish-speaking island became Finnish champions | IFK Mariehamn
How a club from a Swedish-speaking island became Finnish champions | IFK Mariehamn Oct 27, 2026 28:34 IFK Mariehamn were dubbed ‘the Finnish Leicester’ when they sensationally won their first and only Veikkausliiga title in 2016, only seven years after turning fully professional as a club. But a decade later, the team from the Åland Islands – a predominantly Swedish-speaking archipelago in the Baltic Sea – have been relegated, ending a 22-year top-flight stay. So how did this cluster of scen
Why Europe’s two eligible countries choose not to join UEFA | Monaco & Vatican City
Why Europe’s two eligible countries choose not to join UEFA | Monaco & Vatican City Oct 22, 2026 23:02 UEFA has not added to its 55 members in a decade – the longest time between new additions since San Marino joined in 1988 – though it has not been for a lack of trying. Greenland have been desperate for competitive football and Jersey have even taken their case to court, but are both regarded as ineligible. Meanwhile, the two countries that do fulfil the current criteria – Monaco and Vatican Ci
What if Bolivia hosted the World Cup? (At 4,000 metres altitude!)
What if Bolivia hosted the World Cup? (At 4,000 metres altitude!) Oct 20, 2026 29:02 By 2030, half of CONMEBOL’s 10 members will have hosted a World Cup match. But the likes of Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru are unlikely to ever follow suit – in large part due to altitude. Bolivia are the absolute kings of elevation, boasting the highest-altitude international stadium in the world (the Estadio Municipal de El Alto, which sits 4,088 metres above sea level) and frequently making mince
B-teams in La Liga 2: Problem or catalyst for Spain’s 2026 World Cup win?
B-teams in La Liga 2: Problem or catalyst for Spain’s 2026 World Cup win? Oct 16, 2026 29:54 Real Sociedad were in action in Vigo last weekend – not in La Liga but in La Liga 2, in what is currently the only fixture between two B-teams in Spain’s second tier. The presence of reserve teams has long been a source of fierce discussion and debate within Spanish football, which remains deeply divided over their inclusion. So what are the pros and cons of integrating B-teams into the nati
How Albanian giants Skenderbeu earned UEFA’s longest-ever ban (10 years!!!)
How Albanian giants Skenderbeu earned UEFA’s longest-ever ban (10 years!!!) Oct 14, 2026 31:11 Almost a decade ago, a scandal shook Albanian football as Skenderbeu were found guilty of match-fixing on an unprecedented scale and banned by UEFA for 10 years. It is the longest ban in European football history, but Albania’s eight-time national champions could return to the continental stage next season if they finish high enough this term. So what exactly did Skenderbeu do to make Manche
How Hispaniola’s first football derby in 13 years sparked a diplomatic backlash
How Hispaniola’s first football derby in 13 years sparked a diplomatic backlash Oct 8, 2026 25:50 Relations on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, which is shared by Haiti in the west and the Dominican Republic in the east, are already fraught enough. But tensions were ramped up even further last week by the events that unfolded at the first football match between the countries in 13 years. So why is the geopolitical situation on Hispaniola unlike almost anywhere else in the world? What
India & China: Why the world’s two largest countries are football's biggest underachievers
India & China: Why the world’s two largest countries are football's biggest underachievers Oct 6, 2026 25:12 With a combined 2.9 billion inhabitants, India and China are the world’s largest countries. Yet both of them underachieve spectacularly when it comes to international football. The two Asian nations have made just one World Cup appearance between them and have consistently come up short at continental level as well. So what are the reasons behind India and China’s international soccer strugg
Why UEFA rejected Ireland’s request to avoid Israel in draws – and could that change?
Why UEFA rejected Ireland’s request to avoid Israel in draws – and could that change? Oct 1, 2026 22:02 Ireland last year joined Türkiye and Norway in calling for the suspension of Israel’s UEFA membership for what the United Nations has termed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The Nations League draw in February 2026 then pitted the two countries against each other, leading to the emergence of a ‘Stop the Game’ movement in Ireland and a request from the FAI for UEFA to keep them apart in fu

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