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)