The Sweeper - A World Football Podcast

The 2026 World Cup continues to produce breathtaking matches – arguably none more so than debutants Cape Verde versus world champions Argentina. With players who once worked as electricians and mortgage advisors, Cape Verde pushed Lionel Messi & Co. to extra time in the round of 32, serving up one of the most memorable knockout ties in World Cup history. And one of the all-time great goals, sc...

The 2026 World Cup group-stage is over – and we’re already under way with the knockout phase of the tournament! Among the teams in the last 32 are seven knockout debutants: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Canada, DR Congo, Egypt, Ivory Coast, South Africa and Cape Verde, who have been the story of the tournament and face Lionel Messi’s Argentina next. But which other countries reached the knockouts on t...

It has been another scintillating week of action at the 2026 World Cup, where the final round of group games is about to get under way. Algeria are preparing to exact revenge against Austria for the ‘Disgrace of Gijón’ 44 years ago, in what may be the biggest grudge match of the tournament, while the Dutch royal family has been groundhopping to watch the Netherlands and Curaçao on the same day. El...

The 2026 World Cup is already producing crazy quirks and hilarious headlines – with the co-host trio of Canada, Mexico and the USA leading the way. The USMNT have a star striker who gained citizenship by pure coincidence, while the American and Canadian tournament mascots have inspired a Peruvian drug bust and a Mexican duck wearing a national team shirt has gone viral across the world. Meanwhile,...

Uzbekistan are on the cusp of making their long-awaited World Cup bow. With former Ballon d’Or winner Fabio Cannavaro at the helm, the former Soviet republic is about to become the first Central Asian country and the first double-landlocked nation to take part in the greatest show on earth. But what else do you need to know about the White Wolves before they have even kicked a ball in North Americ...

Jordan are at the World Cup finals for the first time ever! Led by coach Jamal Sellami in the dugout and captain Musa Al-Taamari on the pitch – who do not appear to agree when it comes to tactics – Jordan are set to become the country with the lowest land point to ever play at the finals. But what else do you need to know about the wonderfully nicknamed Chivalrous Ones ahead of their opening match...

Debutants Curacao are about to break an all-time World Cup record. Spearheaded by veteran coach Dick Advocaat – soon to be the oldest coach in the tournament’s history – the Caribbean island are the smallest-ever nation to make an appearance at the finals with a population of only 160,000. So what should you know about the brilliantly nicknamed Blue Wave before they make their bow on the global st...

Cape Verde are days away from making their World Cup debut. With a head coach nicknamed after the island of his birth and only seven full-time staff members, the tiny African archipelago are about to take on former world champions Spain and Uruguay as well as Saudi Arabia in North America. But what do you need to know about the Blue Sharks ahead of their maiden appearance on the greatest stage in...

We have come to a tiny landlocked country where nine out of 10 footballers are foreigners. Welcome to beautiful Andorra – a micro-state home to a football scene brimming with curiosities and quirks. In this episode, we’re unpacking the madness: Why are there virtually no Andorrans in the local Primera Divisió? How did Gerard Piqué’s FC Andorra move over the border to play in Spain’s La Liga 2? And...

How has an exiled football club won league titles in three countries in the space of 12 months? In this episode, we tell the extraordinary story of Sudan’s Al Hilal Omdurman and their unprecedented African odyssey. After escaping conflict at home, they first conquered Mauritania’s Super D1 in May 2025, before winning a short championship in their native Sudan last summer and the Rwandan Premier Le...

Mexico’s Liga MX wants to copy the MLS model! The 18 club owners have voted to separate the league from the federation, move towards a franchise model, and permanently abolish promotion and relegation in practice. But hang on, wasn’t relegation already abolished in Mexican football? Don’t lots of top leagues worldwide function as a closed shop? And why are Mexico’s 2026 World Cup preparations unde...

FC Thun midfielder Ethan Meichtry was a road worker three years ago. Now he’s a Swiss Super League winner. His story perfectly encapsulates the improbable rise of the club, who were promoted only last summer and are already champions of Switzerland for the first time in their history. So how did Meichtry go from construction worker to title-winner? How did Thun take Swiss football by storm? And wh...

Red Bull are finally coming for Italian football! The energy drinks giant, which already majority-owns football clubs in Austria, Germany, America, Brazil and Japan, reportedly wants to venture into football in Italy and has now set its sights on FC Südtirol. So what makes the Serie B club a sensible strategic move for Red Bull? And why should supporters in Bolzano be wary of multi-club ownership?...

Shakhtar Donetsk are a Ukrainian football club – but Russia are trying to change that by founding Shakhtyor Donetsk! As part of their efforts to integrate occupied Ukrainian territories, Russia are now creating their own versions of major Ukrainian teams. So why are UEFA not stopping this? What is the current situation in the Crimean Premier League? And how has the invasion changed football in Ukr...

A newly-promoted club are on the verge of the impossible. If tiny FC Thun can get just a few more points on the board, they will win the Swiss Super League and claim the first major trophy in their 128-year history. But what do the locals make of it all? Why is Thun the perfect place for such a fairytale? And how did a literal sauna force a high-stakes clash with Basel to be called off? We headed...

A former poker player has coached Bosnia to the World Cup! Sergej Barbarez has guided the Balkan country to the tournament in his first head coach role – at the expense of four-time champions Italy. So how did he go from the casino for the dugout? Why has qualification cost his striker Ermedin Demirovic €300,000? And how are Bosnia at a second World Cup without ever making the EUROs? In this episo...

Liechtenstein have the strangest national football team in Europe. They have no domestic league to develop players, sometimes take just one fan to away matches and, for years, had just one professional footballer. So how do they make it work? Why is it so hard to generate support for the team? And what change to international football might improve their fortunes? In this episode, we put the micro...

Eritrea’s national team haven’t played an official match in seven years. But this month, the Red Sea Camels are making their long-awaited return to the international stage in AFCON 2027 qualifying. So what kept Eritrea away? Why are they returning to the fold now? And do they have any chance against Eswatini? In this episode, we take you on a virtual journey to the Horn of Africa – and shine a lig...

A World Cup co-host is at war with another participating nation. Since the United States launched strikes against Iran at the end of last month, the big question in the football world has been whether the latter will still play at the World Cup. So will Iran play or not? Could they even face the United States? And who would likely replace them if they were to withdraw? Today, we run through all th...

Steaua Bucharest, Romania’s most successful club, no longer exists. Instead, two teams now both lay claim to the original club’s success – including the highly prized 1986 European Cup. So who is the true successor? Why did UEFA change its mind four decades later? And could they ever play against each other? In this episode, we take you inside one of European football’s oddest disputes: the battle...

Welcome to The Sweeper Podcast. Each week, we bring you the most extraordinary global football stories from across the 211 FIFA countries and beyond. New episodes are released at 8pm UK time every Tuesday. For bonus podcasts every Thursday at the same time, sign up at patreon.com/sweeperpod.

In North Korea, even football is shrouded in secrecy. Fixtures in the DPRK Premier League aren’t published. Fans only find out matches are happening when notices appear outside the stadium the day before. You can’t check the scores. And you can’t watch full games on TV. So how does football actually work in the world’s most secretive country? Why are English Premier League matches shown – but dela...

Bodø/Glimt continued their sensational debut UEFA Champions League campaign by beating Italian giants Inter in the Arctic Circle – after 80 tons of snow had first been cleared from their pitch, of course. But did you know Norway is home to an even snowier pitch, 1,000km further north at the very top of the world, in a place where seeds are stored for the event of an apocalypse and people carry rif...

The most-played match in world football has been contested nearly 1,000 times – yet most fans have never heard of it. Join us on a journey to a tropical corner of the planet as we uncover a rivalry first played in 1914… and still being contested today. Who are the two teams involved? Why have they faced each other so often – an average of seven times a year for over a century? And what could final...

A sleepy town of 22,000 people in southern Slovakia is home to a top-flight football club that is challenging for national titles and boasts an ultra-modern, sleek stadium that is entirely out of step with its surroundings – thanks to money from abroad. We paid a visit to Dunajská Streda to watch local team DAC 1904 play domestic giants Slovan Bratislava in a top-of-the table clash in Slovakia. Bu...