The Athletic FC Podcast

Host Mark Chapman and The Athletic is Football news reporter Matt Slater lead on the story that salary caps in League One and League Two have been scrapped following and appeal by the players' union. We speak to Nick De Marco the QC who successfully argued the case for the PFA and we also get reaction from Accrington Stanley chairman Andy Holt. And as free-to-air Test cricket returns to UK screens...

Mark Chapman is joined by The Athletic's David Ornstein, Adam Crafton & Sam Lee to focus on Manchester City and detail the shortlist of strikers they have drawn up for the summer. And they'll also discuss the increased levels of online abuse towards players and officials following Premier League referee Mike Dean informing police that his family has received death threats on social media platf...

Mark Chapman & Matt Slater are joined by Paraag Marathe Vice Chairman of Premiers League side Leeds United & Executive Vice President of Football Operations at San Francisco 49ers. In a wide ranging interview, Paarag details plans for Elland Road, discussions with other American owners of Premier League clubs and how Leeds & the 49ers could work together in areas such as player contrac...

Mark Chapman is joined by The Athletic's David Ornstein, Adam Crafton & Dominic Fifield to look back on the January 2021 transfer window: Why was it so quiet? Who stands to benefit from it being so quiet? And we’ll look ahead to what we can expect this summer and beyond.. They'll also pick the bones out of the main stories of transfer deadline day including the mechanics behind the players Ars...

Mark Chapman and The Athletic's Matt Slater assess the current state of football's financial landscape as the effects of the pandemic start to take a greater hold on the game. We speak to Deloitte's Tim Bridge after the firm published their annual money league this week with Barcelona sitting at the top on revenues of £627 million, but in the very same week we've seen headlines in Spain suggesting...

Mark Chapman is joined by The Athletic's David Ornstein and Liam Twomey to bring us the inside story of Chelsea's decision to sack Frank Lampard. We'll detail the events that lead to the final decision being made, the problems Lampard had with some sections of a crowded dressing room, the role his relationships with the Chelsea hierarchy played, how his struggles to get Werner and Havertz playing...

Mark Chapman and The Athletic's Matt Slater are joined by two of football’s leading economic and legal minds - Daniel Geey and Stefan Szymanski - to help us ponder the question ‘should football scrap transfer fees?’ The current transfer window is moving quite slow, clubs are facing tougher financial challenges, so what if we just got rid of transfer fees and allowed players to move freely between...

Mark Chapman is joined by The Athletic's David Ornstein, Adam Crafton and Laurie Whitwell with insight and opinion on the biggest stories in football David takes us inside the deal that has finally seen Mesut Ozil's time at Arsenal come to an end, as he heads to Turkey to sign for Fenerbahce. We also bring you news of Chelsea's plans to step up their interest in Dortmund's Erling Haaland this summ...

Mark Chapman is joined by The Athletic's Matt Slater to look at our exclusive story on the recent Burnley takeover. Their new owners have only put in £15 million up front and the rest is leveraged debt. What does this mean and should Burnley fans be concerned? Swansea City investor Jordan Gardener joins us to give us his considered view on the Burnley deal and context on the wider picture relating...

Mark Chapman is joined by The Athletic's David Ornstein and Adam Crafton with news of the latest covid-induced fixture headache as Spurs v Fulham is rearranged at the last minute to replace the game Spurs were due to have against Aston Villa, and we consider the overall picture for the Premier League moving forward as cases continue to rise across the country. There's also news of Arsenal's Rob Ho...

Mark Chapman and The Athletic's Matt Slater bring you an FA Cup special as they're joined by the CEO of Marine AFC, James Leary, ahead of their huge 3rd round tie against Tottenham on Sunday. It's a game that will see their players furloughed if they don't stay in the competition, it's a game that has changed the future of this 8th-tier club forever, and we speak to James to find out exactly what...

Mark Chapman is joined by The Athletic's David Ornstein & Adam Crafton to discuss the uncertainty surrounding Frank Lampard's future at Chelsea after their poor run of form continued with a heavy defeat to Manchester City on Sunday The Athletic's Chelsea correspondent Liam Twomey has all the detail on Lampard's status, the mood in the dressing room and the news that the club have begun looking...

In this week's Business of Sport podcast The Athletic's Matt Slater speaks to one of the men hoping to be the next president of FC Barcelona, Victor Font. Victor sells us his vision for the club and explains why he should be the man to lead Barca back to the summit of European and world football. He also gives us his views on the importance of keeping Messi, whether he wants to bring Xavi back to...

The Athletic's David Ornstein joins Mark Chapman with an update on Arsenal's January transfer plans and has more detail on the mood within the club after another chastening Premier League defeat. We're also joined by our Liverpool writer Simon Hughes with information on Mohammed Salah's future at Anfield after the normally tight-lipped Egyptian gave an interview to the Spanish press last week, is...

In this week's Business of Sport podcast: Mark Chapman ad The Athletic's Matt Slater discuss examine the state of sports TV rights following the termination of French football’s £3bn TV deal with rights expert and media content Pierre Maes. Matt also speaks to Charlton Athletic owner Thomas Sandgaard on his aim to get the club back to the Premier League. Plus Jonas Baer-Hoffman, General Secretary...

Coming up today, host Mark Chapman & David Ornstein discuss issues surrounding Mikel Arteta's first year at Arsenal after a terrible start to the Premier League season. The Athletic’s Laurie Whitwell will join us to detail the inside on Paul Pogba’s time at Manchester United and what might happen next.. And our German writer Rafa Honigstein will be with us to discuss the future of Leipzig’s Da...

Mark Chapman is alongside Matt Slater, football news reporter at The Athletic and today we are going to discuss the City Football Group. The Athletic have this week published an in-depth piece looking at the entire City Football Group, that is the group that controls Manchester City, New York City FC, Melbourne City FC among others, it’s so in-depth actually that it’s in two parts! We’ll explore s...

You’ll have noticed a lot of rainbows at football grounds in the past week or so. They are there as part of the Rainbow Laces movement, which aims to celebrate LGBT+ people working in the game, LGBT+ fans and create a discussion around what more needs to be done to make the game a more welcoming place for all. The Athletic's Adam Crafton, Alex Kay-Jelski and Nancy Frostick are all members of the L...

This week host Mark Chapman and The Athletic’s David Ornstein are joined by Leeds United’s in-form striker Patrick Bamford joins us for a chat straight from the training pitch. David will share details from his weekly column including an exclusive on one of European football’s rising stars, Dominik Szoboszlai. And The Athletic's Dominic Fifield will be with us to discuss what the future holds for...

Mark Chapman and The Athletic's Matt Slate speak to Paul Barber CEO of Premier League side Brighton & Hove Albion. Plus, The Athletic's Oli Kay joins us we’ll also look back on England’s failed attempt to host the 2018 World Cup and a chain of events that led to the collapse of Sepp Blatter’s FIFA empire.. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark Chapman brings you exclusive insight and stories from David Ornstein and other writers at The Athletic. This week, hear part of David's interview with Arsenal invincible Freddie Ljungberg about the importance of having players with a winning mentality. Also, ahead of a crucial few weeks for Liverpool’s scouting department, Simon Hughes joins us to tell us how the club find players. And Chris...

In April 2019 The Athletic's Andy Mitten was tasked by Four Four Two magazine to fly unannounced to the heart of Sinaloa, Mexico, home to the most powerful drug cartel on the planet, and track down the coach of Mexican second division side Dorados, none other than Diego Maradona. This is the story of meeting Maradona in Mexico, as Andy recounts the extraordinary tale to The Athletic's Adam Hurrey....

Mark Chapman and The Athletic's Matt Slater discuss footballers' image rights after as top players including Gareth Bale & Zlatan Ibrahimović are planning to object to use of their likenesses on the hugely popular and lucrative EA Sports game, FIFA 21. We are a joined by Tom Horton a barrister who runs the twitter account TheFootballLaw and has written an excellent thread on the issue of footb...

Host Mark Chapman is joined by David Ornstein to bring exclusive insight and stories from David and The Athletic's team of writers. Coming up today we’ll have the best lines from David’s column that includes Arsenal news - as they open talks to tie down a young striker and tensions boil over in training. Plus we also have an update on Olivier Giroud’s future at Chelsea.  And we are joined by The A...

Mark Chapman and The Athletic's Matt Slater are joined by Wrexham FC director Spencer Harris as he takes us inside the takeover deal that saw Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney purchase the club this week. We'll hear about their plans to take Wrexham to a global audience, the positive impact they've already made on the local community and there's tales of late night zoom calls with R...