The Sweeper - A World Football Podcast

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 for Steaua Bucharest’s history.

Plus: The Italian coach who sacked himself after 44 years and the German pirate island club with no opponents.
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Chapters
00:00 – Intro
00:57 – FCSB’s nightmare season
02:19 – The battle for Steaua’s history
10:09 – Unlikely European Cup winners quiz
14:07 – Gigi Becali: Football’s craziest owner
17:39 – The coach who sacked himself
23:04 – Football’s longest-serving managers
26:10 – The club with no opponents

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 delayed by months and cut down to 60 minutes? Is it really possible to groundhop in Pyongyang? And how have North Korea’s women become one of the strongest forces in football – especially at youth level?
Join us for all the answers in this episode, in which we also tell the story of the Colombian club totally transformed under Wrexham’s Hollywood owners and unveil our first-ever merch: The Sweeper Podcast football shirts.
BUY THE SHIRTS: https://stingz.co/collections/sweeper-podcast
Get £6 off with Patreon: https://patreon.com/sweeperpod

Chapters
00:00 – Intro
01:25 – The DPRK Premier League
05:41 – Bizarre North Korean broadcasts
09:08 – Groundhopping in Pyongyang
13:43 – Unrivalled success at youth level
18:40 – Wrexham's Hollywood duo in Colombia
26:32 – The Sweeper's football shirts

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 rifles to the supermarket to stave off polar bear attacks?
So who used to play here, on this northernmost 11-a-side pitch in the world? Why did it all change after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? And why do so many Liverpool fans live in this Arctic wilderness?
Next, we hop over to Central America, where a family feud is ruining birthdays and leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. So what scenario is unfolding here that is happening nowhere else in the world?
Finally, there’s a club in a local amateur league whose players are forced to play every match at home. Why are they banned from ever playing away? And which former professional footballer is employed to guard them?

Chapters
00:00 – Intro
01:34 – Bodø/Glimt's UCL magic
04:51 – Football at the top of the world
07:59 – Four fun facts about Svalbard
12:27 – El Salvador's family feud
16:02 – Family coaching battles
20:03 – Poland's Nazi-defying club
22:51 – Hashtag United's cup clash
26:06 – Jonker Boys' unusual restriction
Around The World in 80 Clubs: ⁠https://geni.us/WorldIn80Clubs

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 finally slow this extraordinary fixture down in 2026?
Next, we explore the remarkable story of a top-flight club who have not lost a league game since before the pandemic. How have they stayed unbeaten for so long – and why, despite that run, are they still not the most dominant team in world football?
Finally, we turn to the international game and the national team hoping to represent what could become the world’s newest country in 2027. But if independence comes, will they be welcomed into the global football family – or left waiting on the sidelines?
Chapters
00:00 – Intro
01:14 – The world’s most-played fixture
11:21 – Other contenders for the title
14:45 – The longest unbeaten run in history
22:00 – Around The World in 80 Clubs
25:30 – The world’s newest national team?

Bougainville – A New Country: https://www.arte.tv/en/videos/126735-000-A/arte-reportage/
Around The World in 80 Clubs: https://geni.us/WorldIn80Clubs