The Sweeper Podcast
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The Sweeper Podcast
@sweeperpod.bsky.social
🌍 World football podcast telling stories from all 211 FIFA countries & beyond ⭐️ 5* rating from 1,000+ listeners 📧 Enquiries: [email protected]

https://linktr.ee/SweeperPod
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📺 NEW PODCAST 📺

Part 1: Canada 🇨🇦

🏔️ Vancouver Whitecaps' relocation fears
❓ Vancouver FC's continental berth
🆕 Supra du Québec: Canada's Athletic Bilbao

Part 2: Rest of the world 🌍

🇬🇵🇲🇶🇬🇫 4 points for a win in the Caribbean?!
🇳🇴 Lillestrøm: Norway's cup winners
🏆 The World Cup draw for the debutants
🇫🇷 Europe's shortest top-flight away day - excluding stadium shares - returns today as Paris FC travel 30m to the Parc des Princes to face PSG.

The two Parisian clubs have not played each other in the top flight since the 1978/79 season, at the end of which Paris FC were relegated.
January 4, 2026 at 9:33 AM
🎉 50,000 FOLLOWERS ON X 🎉

A big thanks to every single person who follows The Sweeper on X and has supported our pursuit to cover the whole world of football - in all 211 FIFA member states and beyond! 🌍

Time to have a beer and celebrate! 🍻

You can join us on X at x.com/sweeperpod
January 3, 2026 at 8:46 PM
🦸 We're calling for Turkish third-tier club Batman to take on Spanish third-tier side Hercules in a game we're billing as 'the Superhero Derby'.

It could even be expanded into a mini tournament if Black Panther of Uganda, Thor of Iceland or Vision of Ghana were added to the fold!
January 3, 2026 at 6:38 PM
🏆 There are two countries that have reached the Africa Cup of Nations knockout stages for the first time in 2025:

🇲🇿 Mozambique
🇹🇿 Tanzania

Mozambique have achieved the feat at the sixth time of asking, while this is Tanzania's fourth AFCON.
January 3, 2026 at 5:50 PM
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿↕️ League One, the third tier of English football, is among the most competitive leagues across Europe at this moment in time.

There are only five points separating the 13 clubs between ninth place (Mansfield, 32) and 21st place in the relegation zone (Plymouth, 27).
January 3, 2026 at 5:01 PM
🏆 Quirky qualifications for the AFCON knockouts:

🇧🇯 Benin: Scored only one goal & lost two games in the group stages
🇲🇱 Mali: Did not win a game in the group stages
🇸🇩 Sudan: Did not score a goal in the group stages
🇹🇿 Tanzania: Did not win a game in the group stages & lost a game in the group stages
January 3, 2026 at 2:31 PM
🆚 An exhibition game in CONIFA, the global body for teams not affiliated with FIFA, is taking place on France's south coast today.

The Principality of Rouet-Provence, who represent a coastal area near Marseille, will face Raetia, which is situated in the Alps of east Switzerland & north Italy.
January 3, 2026 at 12:41 PM
🇲🇹 Third-tier Victoria Hotspurs are set for a big challenge in the last 32 of Malta's FA Trophy today - a trip to national champions Ħamrun Spartans.

Victoria Hotspurs are the only club not based on the island in Malta's football pyramid & instead hail from the neighbouring island of Gozo.
January 3, 2026 at 11:29 AM
🏟️ Dundee United and Dundee, whose stadiums are around 180 metres apart, will go head-to-head in the Scottish Premiership today.

Amazingly, however, it will not be Europe's closest top-flight city derby this weekend: PSG & Paris FC, who meet tomorrow, are only 30 metres apart.
January 3, 2026 at 9:46 AM
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Bonny(rigg Rose) and Clyde(bank) are running away with it at the top of the Lowland League, the fifth tier of Scottish football, this season.

They will face each other in the next edition of the 'Bank Robber Derby', which could decide the title & the promotion play-off spot, on 7 March 2026.
January 2, 2026 at 8:33 PM
🇮🇩 Things have all started to go wrong for Borneo Samarinda since we posted about their 100% record (11 wins from 11 games) in November.

They have since picked up only one point from a possible 12 & been replaced at the top of the Indonesian Super League table by Persib Bandung.
January 2, 2026 at 7:28 PM
🇵🇱 What on earth is going on at Legia Warsaw?! And could Poland’s record champions really get relegated?!

Listen to the full Ekstraklasa segment:

🟢 Spotify: bit.ly/3KLbuYP
🍎 Apple: apple.co/3L9tL1T
📺 YouTube: bit.ly/4qCQqTr
January 2, 2026 at 5:57 PM
🏆 The 16 countries in the AFCON 2025 knockout stages, which start this weekend:

🇩🇿 Algeria, 🇧🇯 Benin, 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso, 🇨🇲 Cameroon, 🇨🇩 DR Congo, 🇪🇬 Egypt, 🇨🇮 Ivory Coast, 🇲🇱 Mali, 🇲🇦 Morocco, 🇲🇿 Mozambique, 🇳🇬 Nigeria, 🇸🇳 Senegal, 🇿🇦 South Africa, 🇸🇩 Sudan, 🇹🇿 Tanzania, 🇹🇳 Tunisia
January 2, 2026 at 4:14 PM
🇧🇬 There is only one top-flight football club based in Montana - and it is in the Bulgarian town of 40,000 people rather than the US state of 1.1 million.

Nicknamed 'The Glory', the club where Stiliyan Petrov started his professional career are hovering just above the drop zone in the Parva Liga.
January 2, 2026 at 2:27 PM
🇦🇺 Canberra United, the only club in Australia's A-League Women that is not affiliated with a men's team, currently top the standings.

Canberra United are also the only Australian top-flight club in men's or women's football to be based in the capital city of Canberra.
January 2, 2026 at 12:28 PM
🇬🇷 What an amazing season the AEK Athens squad are having on all fronts!

🔝 Top of the Super League
🏆 4/4 wins in the Greek Cup
🇪🇺 Third place & qualification in the league phase of the UEFA Conference League
💰 €500,000 bonus from owner Marios Iliopoulos for European exploits
December 27, 2025 at 7:36 PM
🇲🇱 No living football manager has coached more national teams than Belgian journeyman Tom Saintfiet, who is currently with Mali at AFCON 2025:

🇧🇩 Bangladesh, 🇪🇹 Ethiopia, 🇬🇲 Gambia, 🇲🇼 Malawi, 🇲🇱 Mali, 🇲🇹 Malta, 🇳🇦 Namibia, 🇵🇭 Philippines, 🇹🇬 Togo, 🇹🇹 Trinidad & Tobago, 🇾🇪 Yemen, 🇿🇲 Zambia
December 27, 2025 at 6:08 PM
🇳🇬 The Wikipedia page of Nigerian Premier League team Wikki Tourists specifically states that the club are not connected in any way to Wikipedia!

Wikki Tourists FC actually got its name from the Wikki Warm Spring, a famous natural hot spring located near its home city of Bauchi.
December 27, 2025 at 4:48 PM
🇺🇾 Uruguay is introducing a new competition in January: the Copa de la Liga (League Cup), which will be contested by the 16 top-flight clubs.

Interestingly, if it has the same two finalists as the Supercopa (Super Cup) - in this case Peñarol & Nacional - the final will count for both titles.
December 27, 2025 at 4:15 PM
🔝 Dominant football clubs in Asia that have won 100% of their league matches this season:

🇱🇦 Ezra (9/9)
🇲🇾 Johor Darul Ta'zim (12/12)
🇸🇬 Lion City Sailors (5/5)
🇹🇲 Arkadag* (28/28)

* The season in Turkmenistan is complete. Arkadag have won every league match in their history.
December 27, 2025 at 1:24 PM
🎅 From both The Sweeper Podcast & our friends at Finnish football club FC Santa Claus, we wish you an amazing Christmas!
December 25, 2025 at 10:47 AM
🇶🇦 Without a win in the AFC Champions League this season and despite being 2-1 down deep into stoppage time, Al-Sadd have pulled off an insane comeback!

The Qatari side pulled level with UAE team Shabab Al-Ahli in the 95th minute, before adding further goals in the 101st and 103rd minutes to win!
December 23, 2025 at 9:24 PM
📺 NEW EPISODE 📺

Part 1: Asia with John Duerden

🇮🇳 India's Super League crisis
🇲🇾 Malaysia's naturalisation scandal
🇰🇷 Jeonbuk's racism row in South Korea

Part 2: Rest of the world

🇲🇦 AFCON 2025 with Ali Howorth
🇵🇱 The utterly mad Polish Ekstraklasa
🇨🇽 Football & crabs on Christmas Island
December 23, 2025 at 8:50 PM
🇧🇴 Nacional Potosí have won the 2025 Copa Bolivia, the first major trophy in their history, and reached the Copa Libertadores qualifying rounds.

Their opponents will be Botafogo, who will face a tough task in the away leg: the Estadio Víctor Agustín Ugarte is almost 4,000 metres above sea level!
December 23, 2025 at 6:11 PM
⬆️ The top nations at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations by FIFA ranking:

🇲🇦 Morocco (11), 🇸🇳 Senegal (19), 🇪🇬 Egypt (34), 🇩🇿 Algeria (35), 🇳🇬 Nigeria (38), 🇹🇳 Tunisia (40), 🇨🇮 Ivory Coast (42), 🇲🇱 Mali (54), 🇨🇩 DR Congo (56), 🇨🇲 Cameroon (57)
December 23, 2025 at 2:09 PM