With overseas territories from all over the world taking part, the Coupe de France is one of the world’s most intriguing domestic football competitions. But who funds it? How do they decide who plays home and away? And could an overseas side play in a UEFA competition if they won the tournament. In Part 1, co-hosts Lee Wingate and Paul Watson answer all the key questions about the French Cup and reflect on their recent journey to the sleepy rural town of Saint-Mesmin to watch sixth-tier Saint-Méziéry play host to Tahitian cup winners AS Pirae in the seventh round of the tournament.Next up in Part 2: the world’s most isolated clubs! There’s a mention for Rapa Nui FC of Easter Island, who hosted the mighty Colo Colo in a 2009 Chilean Cup clash, Khabarovsk, who travel around 100,000km per season to fulfil their away fixtures in the Russian second tier, and Perth Glory, who cut an isolated figure in the Australian A-League. That’s followed by the remarkable story of Papua New Guinea’s exit from the Pacific Games and a look back at some other harsh tournament eliminations, including the coin toss at EURO 1968 and the madness of the 1994 Caribbean Cup, where goals briefly counted double!In the third and final segment, it’s time for a round-up of the remaining stories. Erling Haaland paid for 200 fans of his first club, Bryne, to travel to Kristiansand for a play-off match, only for the Start groundsman to fail to turn on the undersoil heating and the game to be cancelled. There’s cucumber throwing and so much more besides at the Mascot Olympics in Spain, which was won by Valencia’s representative Amunt the Bat. And finally, two Tiktokers have bought and relocated Latvian second-division club Leevon Saldus with the aim of getting them promoted to the Virslīga. We hope you enjoy the show!*Correction: AS Pirae qualified for the 2023/24 Coupe de France by winning the Coupe de Polynésie.RUNNING ORDER:Part 1: The magic & madness of the Coupe de France and our trip to watch Saint Méziéry vs. AS Pirae of Tahiti in the seventh round (00:47)Part 2: The world's most isolated clubs and Papua New Guinea's incredibly harsh elimination from the Pacific Games (22:27)Part 3: The undersoil heating fiasco in Norway, the Mascot Olympics in Spain & the Latvian club bought by Tiktokers (44:12) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Nordic nations served up tension, drama and excitement in abundance at the weekend as several titles were decided by the narrowest of margins. The Swedish men’s and women’s titles came down to goal difference, as did a bonkers goal-laden battle for promotion in the Norwegian third tier. That got co-hosts Lee Wingate and Paul Watson racking their brains about the closest title races in history in Part 1, with England, Azerbaijan and Austria all getting a mention. As do Sexy Pants, who have unfortunately been relegated in Finland!There is a venture outside of Europe in Part 2 as Paul talks in-depth about the Te Runga Games, a quadrennial sports competition held in Kiribati – one of the most remote places in the world. There’s also a word for Afghanistan, whose new coach Ashley Westwood faces a full-scale rebellion before the World Cup qualifier against Qatar, and Eritrea, who have pulled out of the tournament entirely because the country’s authoritarian regime deems the players to be a flight risk. And finally there’s a listener email from Ian, who was treated like a royal on a football trip to Tajikistan.It is back to Europe in Part 3 as Lee pays a visit to Austrian club Blau-Weiss Linz, whose former player Raphael Dwamena sadly passed away after collapsing during a match in Albania on Saturday. That story is followed by the news of the penalty shootout that took place in North Ireland between Coleraine and Ballymena, and is the third-longest in football history. To finish off, we talk about our upcoming trip to Paris to watch Tahitian champions AS Pirae take on sixth-tier Saint Meziery in the Coupe de France at the weekend.RUNNING ORDER:Part 1: Frantic finales in the Nordic nations, the closest title races of all time & a roundup of the remaining Scandinavian football headlines (00:44)Part 2: The Te Runga Games in Kiribati, Eritrea’s withdrawal from World Cup qualification and Ashley Westwood’s mutiny in Afghanistan (17:48)Part 3: Completing the Austrian Bundesliga’s 12 stadia, the third-longest penalty shootout ever & a preview of our Coupe de France trip (35:36) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

KÍ Klaksvík have been the European football story of the season since they became the first club from the Faroe Islands to reach the group stages of a UEFA competition. But they didn’t stop there and have since followed up a draw at home to 2021 Ligue 1 winners Lille with a famous victory over Olimpija Ljubljana. Daniel Storey, the chief football writer at the i and a regular panelist on The Totally Football Show, was in the Faroes to witness the historic moment and joins us in Part 1 to tell us about his trip and reflect on the KÍ Klaksvík miracle.Part 2 kicks off with a chat about domestic cups across the continent: Balzers have an all-Vaduz cup run in Liechtenstein, Jeanfield Swifts record the biggest Scottish Cup win for a non-league team since 1896, Trencin are knocked out of the Slovak Cup by a fifth-division team and seventh-tier Deportivo Murcia are preparing for their Copa del Rey tie with La Liga side Alaves. The segment concludes with Lee telling Paul all about his trip to Czechia at the weekend to watch the team that recently lost 9-5 and re-living the awful birthday he spent at a concrete factory in Ostrava.The third and final segment of the podcast is dedicated to some stories beyond Europe’s borders: a Tongan team has completed a perfect season with two 62-year-olds in their ranks, a 27-year-old former bricklayer has led an Ecuadorian team from the third division to the top flight and two fans of Thai second-division side Suphanburi FC recently made the 850km journey to Krabi to watch their team play. Last but not least, we read out some e-mails from listeners who have tuned into the pod from multiple different countries around the world.RUNNING ORDER:Part 1 - The KÍ Klaksvík miracle & the rise of Faroese football with Daniel Storey (00:39)Part 2 - Quirks and cupsets, a trip to Czechia to see the team that lost 9-5 & a terrible birthday surprise (24:39)Part 3 - A perfect season in Tonga, two away fans in Thailand & a 27-year-old coach in Ecuador (42:04) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With another week packed full of international action in Europe, Asia and beyond, plus a selection of splendid club football stories and some superb listener emails, co-hosts Lee Wingate and Paul Watson once again had plenty of niche football talking points to dig their teeth into on the latest episode of the Sweeper Podcast. And that was before San Marino sent Football Twitter into meltdown by scoring their first competitive goal in more than two years against 18th-ranked Denmark, forcing the pod team to do an emergency 'The world's worst team just scored a goal!' segment to insert at the start of the show.The early Asian World Cup qualifying action is the starting point in Part 2. Paul tells us all about Guam, the first country to be eliminated from 2026 World Cup qualifying, Curtis Davies’ unlikely debut for Sierra Leone at the ripe old age of 38 and Otis Khan’s struggles to prove his Pakistani heritage to the powers-that-be. Lee then chips in with some headlines from the European continent, including the Polish squad getting stuck in the Faroe Islands, some bizarre records set by Georgia and Croatia, and Thailand’s improbable stop at McDonald's on their journey to Estonia.It's all about club football in Part 3 and there was only one place to start: Norway, where YMCA club and waffle impostors KFUM are on the cusp of an historic promotion to the Eliteserien, the country’s top flight. That’s followed by a chat about Deportivo Murcia, the first seventh-tier club to win a Copa del Rey tie in the competition’s 120-year history and also a contender for the unwanted prize of the worst badge in football. Plus, we read out some lovely listener emails sent from far-flung countries and territories across the globe, such as Hong Kong, Gibraltar and Myanmar.RUNNING ORDER:Part 1 - Emergency 'San Marino scored a goal' section (00:48)Part 2 - Full international round-up: First World Cup eliminations, Afghanistan's coaching chaos & Thailand's trip to McDonald's (10:14)Part 3 - Club stories & emails: The Norwegian YMCA fairytale, Deportivo Murcia's Copa del Rey magic & messages from far-flung lands (33:47) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sweeper crew have been going viral on social media recently. Paul Watson proposed a World Cup for the 32 worst-ranked countries in the world on Twitter – and it turns out a lot of people want to see it! Paul explains in Part 1 how it might work and who might win it, before the discussion turns to Pakistan and which countries might be the first to be eliminated from 2026 World Cup qualifying.In Part 2, fellow host Lee Wingate talks about his recent travels across Austria – first as the pitchside English-language stadium announcer mere metres away from Jürgen Klopp at the LASK-Liverpool Europa League match and then at the hotly anticipated cup clash between Red Bull Salzburg and Austria Salzburg, the team they bought in a controversial takeover 18 years ago.Finally, in Part 3, the team round up the remaining stories from across Europe. There’s an intriguing derby in Spanish North Africa as the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla go head-to-head, while a 45-year-old Slovakian keeper faces his son in the final match of his career. There’s also a word for second-tier Lithuanian cup winners Transinvest and a brilliant micro-nation-related email from a listener.RUNNING ORDER:Part 1 - The 'Worst World Cup', San Marino's chances, Zealand's simulations & a word on Pakistan (00:38)Part 2 - Travels in Austria: Life as a Europa League stadium announcer and the crunch cup tie in Salzburg (22:18)Part 3 - The enclave derby in Spanish North Africa & the Slovakian father and son in opposite goals (37:16) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sweeper co-hosts Lee Wingate & Paul Watson have (quite literally) gone to the ends of the earth for this episode, Part 1 of which kicks off with a trip to Antarctica - where a Belgian-backed micronation has launched its own football team to mark its 15th anniversary - and continues with a look at the representative from St. Pierre & Miquelon that travelled 4,000km to the French mainland to play a cup tie.The unique away day theme continues in Part 2 as we look at quirky geographical features that some fans have to navigate to get to away games: there's an undersea roundabout in the Faroe Islands, a bridge that bypasses Bosnia on the Adriatic Coast and a Swiss stadium that requires two cable cars to reach. We then talk about the La Liga squad that missed their flight and read some more of your e-mails about former footballers who have gone into politics.It's all about stupid stories in Part 3. The annual Costa Rican mascot race ends in victory for Lula the cow - or is it Gary? - and a wealthy businessman pays £17,500 for his 22-year-old son to get 10 minutes of game time in the Czech third tier. Finally, Paul recaps a memorable bonus podcast and we look ahead to some exciting stories from Wales and the USA for next time.RUNNING ORDER:Part 1 - The Antarctic micronation with a football team & island time in the Coupe de France (00:50)Part 2 - Unusual European away days, missed flights in La Liga & former footballers who have gone into politics (17:03)Part 3 - The epic Costa Rican mascot race & the Czech father who paid big money for his son to play (31:52)The Costa Rican mascot race:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-uUWC-_RVI Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's time for another episode of The Sweeper with co-hosts Lee Wingate & Paul Watson, who has penned the first chapter of his sequel to the hit book 'Up Pohnpei' - all about his adventures in Micronesian football. We talk all about it in Part 1 of this episode, before discussing the Indonesian team travelling in a tank and the Slovenian club president scoring goals in a desperate situation.Part 2 starts off with a couple of stories from Sweden: lower-league Torns IF have discovered a loophole in the offside rule, while AIK supporters are telling police where to hit them with batons. Ladders (but no snakes) are being thrown around in France, while an Austrian club president is making headlines for handing out cash to quench fans' thirst - at a game Lee attended live.Finally, in Part 3, we expand our focus to cover the whole continent: there's a preview of the European group stages and the biggest away days faced by the 96 teams in question, plus a look ahead to the international break and the chances Kazakhstan, Luxembourg and Moldova have of making it to EURO 2024.RUNNING ORDER:Part 1: The sequel to 'Up Pohnpei', the Indonesian team travelling in a tank & the Slovenian club president scoring goals (00:46)Part 2: Offside rule loopholes and baton-wielding police in Sweden, snakes and ladders in France & drinks for the fans in Austria (17:01)Part 3: The biggest away days in the European group phase & a look ahead to the international fixtures (32:18)VIDEO: The loophole to the offside rule discovered by Torns IF:https://www.theguardian.com/football/video/2023/aug/30/swedish-third-tier-team-torns-if-find-offside-rule-loophole-video Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Located at the intersection of Europe and North America, Greenland boasts the unique selling point of having the shortest season in world football - at one week long. The first part of the latest episode of 'The Sweeper' sees presenter Lee Wingate talk all about the 2023 Greenlandic Football Championship with co-host Paul Watson, who reflects on his own journey to Nuuk seven summers ago.Part 2 kicks off with a shout-out for KÍ Klaksvík & Zrinjski Mostar, the first-ever clubs from the Faroe Islands and Bosnia & Herzegovina to reach a European group phase. We talk about the KÍ player selling frozen pizzas, the prize money that comes with qualification and also speak about Raków's insane rise from the Polish third division to the brink of the Champions League in the space of a few years.Finally, in Part 3, it's time for some silly refereeing stories, starting in Latvia with the drunk refs whose dodgy decisions saw them breathalysed by police and finishing with the Fred Perry polo shirt-wearing fan who stepped in to run the line in Portsmouth's match against Cheltenham. There's also a look at the revolt against Samuel Eto'o in Cameroon & a plug for our brilliant bonus episodes.RUNNING ORDER:Part 1: The 2023 Greenlandic Football Championship & our own visit to watch the world's shortest football season (00:44)Part 2: A first for the Faroes and Bosnia & Herzegovina, plus the remarkable rise of Raków to the brink of Europe's top table (15:25)Part 3: Drunk Latvian refs, the stand-in linesman wearing gold boots & a revolt against Samuel Eto'o in Cameroon (30:42) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Who needs the European group stages? It's clearly all about the qualifying rounds - and with a major milestone for the Faroe Islands, notable results for Andorra and Malta, and a number of other captivating storylines across the continent, there's plenty for co-hosts Lee Wingate & Paul Watson to get stuck into on this episode of The Sweeper.In Part 1, Lee & Paul start off by talking (once again) about team of the moment KÍ Klaksvík and another headline from the Nordic nations: the Icelandic youngster whose hat-trick knocked his father out of the Champions League. Then there's a crazy game in Kosovo with 23 minutes of added time, a landmark for Santa Coloma of Andorra & a look at the eight countries that have never had a group-stage representative.Then, in Part 2, we turn our attentions to the state of limbo facing the Afghanistan women's team, the curious case of a raccoon that fell through a US press box ceiling, the Greenlandic team missing the Championship to go on a reindeer hunt and an Austrian derby that has been 18 years in the making as Austria Salzburg are drawn against Red Bull Salzburg - the club that bought them out back in 2005.RUNNING ORDER:Part 1 - The European qualifying rounds: Faroese magic, father-son battles & stoppage time madness (00:44)Part 2 - The Afghan women's team, Greenlandic reindeer hunts, raccoons in the US press box and a spicy Salzburg derby (18:40) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sweeper crew have been to Liechtenstein and San Marino in recent months – but the 26,000km round-trip to Micronesia was by far our biggest off-the-beaten-track football adventure. Having now overcome the jetlag, Paul has the full story on the Pacific nation’s first-ever futsal tournament and its newly assembled Football Association.Part 1 sees us reflect on Paul’s past in Micronesia as the world's youngest international football coach, the Twitter DM from Kenny that changed everything, the tournament format, the lost suitcase of futsal shoes, Kosrae’s controversial path to the final, Yap’s victory, the trophy flown in from Guam, an emergency wood carving and much more besides.Then, in Part 2, we talk about the establishment of an FA, the constitution that Paul wrote on the plane, the importance of futsal to Micronesia’s football strategy and whether the AFC or the OFC offers the likeliest route to membership in a FIFA Confederation. Lastly, we chat about the upcoming sequel to Paul’s popular book “Up Pohnpei” and where you can read it.Finally, in Part 3, it’s time for our usual European football round-up. Faroese side KÍ Klaksvík pull off a huge shock in the Champions League qualifiers, Glentoran and Gżira United play out the highest-scoring penalty shootout in UEFA history, there’s a night to remember for Andorra and two Crimean clubs are incorporated into the Russian football pyramid.RUNNING ORDER:Part 1 – The first-ever Micronesian futsal tournament: the Twitter DM that changed everything, Kosrae’s controversial path to the final & Yap’s victory (00:45)Part 2 – The first-ever Micronesian futsal tournament: the establishment of an FA, routes to membership in a FIFA Confederation & the sequel to “Up Pohnpei” (20:23)Part 3 – The European football round-up: KÍ Klaksvík’s UCL upset, the highest-scoring shootout in UEFA history & the contested fate of two Crimean clubs (33:48) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.