Footy On The Med

Footy on the Med begins and ends at  Monaco  and the Stade Louis II. Yes, this is where John and Alex recorded their first podcast, this is where season 2 began, and this is where season 2 wended to an end. Not without some drama, as Monaco’s ultras didn’t take kindly to their team’s defeat to  Toulouse . The reverse meant Monaco failed to qualify for any kind of European competition, speaking fur...

If there's one thing about John and Alex it's that they refuse to let the grass grow under their feet. This isn't because they think the grass is greener. It's because of their commitment to grass roots football, especially in  Grasse , home of perfume and  Racing Club Pays de Grasse . What a game last Saturday, when  Lyon-La Duchère  came to town. Both sides showed why they're...

Pisa,  city of the bending tower . The  Arena Garibaldi , home of  Pisa Sporting Club . Serie B,  cauldron of startling stadia . And a pair of special guests that John and Alex will never forget. All this made for riotous trip to Tuscany to see Pisa take on promotion hopefuls  Bari  in what proved to be a thrilling match, complete with camouflaged yet deafening ultras, a brilliant idea by the Rifl...

Footy on the Med talks to Marc Bircham on the eve of Genoa's trip to Como 1907. Bircham, a legend at QPR and former Canadian international, helped steer the team he coaches to a 2-2 draw against the leviathans from the Med - despite their going 2-0 down to Serie B's strong contenders for promotion. FOTM is branching out into chats with former or current football players and managers, so if...

It's Footy on the Med's shortest, leanest, slickest, quickest podcast - a tribute to minimalism and a hymn to humility. Yes, it's England (and Ireland) v France, John and Alex style. With the help of Young Trafford and Gary 'Irish' Not-Neville, the brave lads prevailed in an historic encounter in Garavan, Menton. Could it be that events conspired to mean Footy on the Med couldn...

There's no stopping John and Alex. Hot on the heels of moving among Europe's journalistic elite at OGC Nice, they find themselves at the  St John's English Library in Menton . Yes, Alex persuaded John to read a book but no, literary sleuthing wasn't the sole purpose of their visit. The duo were being asked questions about life, Footy on the Med and Alex's  A Season on the Med  ...

John and Alex hit the big time: thanks to the good folk at NIce OGC , they were in the press gantry for Nice v Auxerre . Better yet, Nice also accommodated John and Alex's good friend Cycling Man Stan, aka San Francisco Bay Area Hall of Fame Radio Broadcaster Stan Bunger (yes, that's his full name). Better still, the trio got to Nice in good time for a meal at one of their favourite restaurants, L...

Who is London French ? What is London French? Where are London French? Listen out for the answers as John, Alex and Young Trafford settle down at the ML Lounge for a chat about all things Med footy, only to be joined by the man now living in Alex's old house (clue: he used to play for London French and is called Rory). Inspired by Young Trafford's round-up of recent continental football happe...

It's safe to say that Pierre de Courbetin  couldn't have predicted his appearance in a podcast featuring John's early life as a tree surgeon and Alex's failed to attempt to score a carrot picking job in Australia. It's also fair to say that no one would have predicted that AS Cannes v Rousset Ste Victoire at the Stade de Pierre Courbetin would include a discussion of these things. N...

There was a city called Sanremo/whose hats were given the heave-ho/They all fell down/There on the ground/At the feet of Roy Keano. Yes, Edward Lear, the famed English nonsense poet, might have said this about Italy's city of flowers - he lived and died there - but not Alex and John. No, armed with press passes they took Footy on the Med to a new level for Sanremese v Stresa - or, perhaps, a new l...

Stadio Luigi Ferraris . What an arena for football. One of the best, any day of the week. But on Sunday 8 January 2023, Luigi Ferraris rocked - perhaps as never before. It was Sampdoria v Napoli. The hosts, not so good this season. Napoli, topping Serie A. A routine giant v minnow clash? No way. Not today. This was Gianluca Vialli's day. The Samp legend , taken too young a few days before the game...

It's not unusual for John and Alex to watch a game of football. It's not unusual for them to watch a game in a bar. It happens every day. (Well, almost.) It's not unusual for John and Alex to talk to Young Trafford. And it's not unusual for everyone to fall in love. (What? Ed.) Yes, it happens all the time. But it's very unusual for Tom Jones to join Footy on the Med . Listen out for the greatest...

John and Alex met at the ML Lounge for England 0 v United States 0. This fantastic bar is proving significant in Footy on the Med lore. It was where Alex first tempted John with the idea of roaming around Mediterranean football clubs for a podcast, it was where the pair were interviewed by Paul and Lewis from My Football Heroes , and it was where Alex once wrote three sentences of A Season on the...

And so the World Cup begins, neither with a bang nor a whimper but - on Footy on the Med , anyway - with a leprechaun. Yes, before John and Alex can settle down to enjoy England v Iran in Bar Rino in the heart of Menton they are met by an unaccountable blast of Irishness . And why not? The host nation might not be the most inclusive but Footy on the Med is. Listen out for Alex's next book, A Seaso...

It's the eve of the FIFA World Cup , and what's not to like? A feast of football awaits, accompanied only by the host country's dismal human rights record and hostility to the LGBTQ+ community . The man in charge of John and Alex (that's President Macron) says sport should not be politicised . Plenty of others disagree, and say a political world cup is nothing new . Meanwhile, to set out its stall...

Footy on the Med's second season takes John and Alex into uncharted territory. Well, a few miles (not 20) east to the Italian town of Ventimiglia. There Ventimiglia Calcio take on Campese, a team about whom little is known - by John and Alex, anyway. Thankfully Young Trafford is in tow with a key fact about the visitors: they are from the Genoa area, not, as John thought, an island in the Med due...

Sanremo, the City of Flowers. Home of Sanremese Calcio, on the Riviera dei Fiori. It's hot. Scorchio. In the name of podcast freedom John, Alex and Young Trafford eschew shade and fry themselves alive in the south stand of the Stadio Comunale, as the home side take on Castanese in Serie D, Girona A clash. Have a listen for trademark meandering FOTM chat, the debut of The Rifleman, a worldie by San...

It's two trips to the Stade Louis II on the bounce as John and Alex roll up for Monaco v Ferencváros in the Europa League. With them again is Young Trafford, youthful vim and energy clamouring for a decent game of football. Will this clash with Hungary's most successful club side deliver the goods? With Henry Wingo not on the wing and an impressive band of noisy fans, the away side took the sting...

Footy on the Med is back for Season 2 with a strange old opener at the Stade Louis II. Monaco took on Troyes, wth neither side having much to show for their efforts so far. Monaco were a lacklustre 12th in Ligue 1, Troyes, from north-east France, three places below them. But with a 1-1 draw away to Paris Saint-Germain in their previous game, would the Monégasques hit form? Or would Troyes push on...

Footy on the Med is back for Season 1. Well, almost. Before John and Alex set off on another round of Mediterranean meanderings they were interviewed by Stan Bunger, a legendary US West Coast broadcast journalist. Turns out that Stan, morning co-anchor at KCBS All News 740 AM/106.9 FM in San Francisco from 2000 until his retirement in 2021, is a big fan of FOTM. Whether he really flew all the way...

Footy on the Med's final game of the 2021-2022 season was on the Med, but not as John and Alex have come to know it. Alex's obsession with QPR and Stan Bowles saw him travel solo to Greece for AEK Athens v Olympiacos, by way of a reprise of the Rs' great UEFA Cup run of 1977. "I'm sorry, what UEFA Cup run? Anyway I can't make it, I have to watch some paint dry," said John, but he missed a treat. P...

It's taken all season but, at last, John finds his vocation on a trip to Cagnes-sur-Mer. There, on a sunny Mediterranean day while watching AS Cagnes-Le-Cros take on FC Carnoux, all becomes clear. John 'Entertainer' O'Hare has always existed, but now exists formally. Informally, too. To be fair, despite Carnoux winning 4-2, this wasn't the most exhilarating game Footy on the Med has seen. John's e...

Spezia is not a leviathan of Serie A. Atalanta may be the Queen of the Provinces but is not a club known as a Serie A heavyweight. And isn't the Cinque Terre all about ambling amiably from village to village, not calcio? True on all counts but in Spezia v Atalanta John and Alex caught a cracking game in surely one of Europe's most scenic grounds. It ended Spezia 1, Atalanta 3 - but the passion of...

With the Special One and Roma in town, how could John and Alex resist a trip to the City of Beautiful Confusion? Answer: they couldn't. The fearless duo were once again Genoa-bound, for a game that relegation-threatened Sampdoria needed to win. They needed their playmaker, 35-year-old Antonio Candreva, to conjure some magic. They needed their players to find the fire with which they'd vanquished G...