*Summer break* We're now taking a summer break until 4 August. You can get episodes in the meantime on Patreon. Thanks for your support, have a wonderful summer and see you at the start of next month 😊

🎙️NEW BONUS PODCAST🎙️ How do football shirts explain global politics, money and power? With special guest Joey D’Urso. 🇮🇹 Parma FC's disappearing sponsor 🇨🇴 Envigado FC's shadowy shirt 🇨🇳 China's rise and retreat Join us at patreon.com/sweeperpod to listen!

🇮🇸 Second-tier club Vestri, who hail from the north-west of Iceland just below the Arctic Circle, will make their continental debut v. Qarabağ in the UEFA Europa League first qualifying round today. Vestri won the Icelandic Cup last season, but were subsequently relegated from the top flight.

🏆 The 14 debutants in the UEFA club competitions in 2026/27: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Bournemouth 🇮🇹 Como 🇰🇿 Yelimay Semey 🇱🇺 Atert Bissen, Mondorf-Les-Bains 🇺🇦 LNZ Cherkasy 🇷🇸 Železničar Pančevo 🇧🇾 ML Vitebsk 🇦🇱 AF Elbasani 🇸🇮 Aluminij 🇧🇪 Sint-Truiden 🇵🇹 Torreense 🇮🇸 Vestri 🇸🇪 Mjällby *Excludes past Intertoto Cup involvement

📺 𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗘𝗣𝗜𝗦𝗢𝗗𝗘 📺 🇨🇻 Cape Verde's World Cup tourism boost 👰 Taylor Swift's wedding or Cape Verde v 🇦🇷? 💥 Sydny Lopes Cabral & binbags for curtains 🇵🇾 The story of Paraguay's keeper Orlando Gill 🇳🇿 Tim Payne's "homecoming" move to Olimpia 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 The England fan who sparked a manhunt

👕 You can get the shirts of the teams involved in the UEFA Champions League qualifying rounds from our kit partner Golaço Kits. Simply visit golacokits.com and enter the discount code SWEEPER10, which gives our podcast listeners and social media followers an exclusive 10% discount! #ad

10/10 - Kairat Almaty 🇰🇿 Located close to the border with China, Kairat Almaty set the record for the most easterly UEFA Champions League club when they reached the league phase last term. To fulfil their away fixtures, they covered 45,000 kilometres - more than the circumference of the planet!

9/10 - CS Universitatea Craiova 🇷🇴 There are two clubs that claim to be the successor of the original Universitatea Craiova. FCU Craiova 1948 were deducted 106 points and kicked out of all competitions by Romania's FA last season! Meanwhile, CS Universitatea Craiova became national champions.

8/10 - Vardar 🇲🇰 Vardar are somehow both the record champions of North Macedonia (12 titles) and a yoyo club, having been relegated from the top flight twice. To circumvent relegation the first time in 2010/11, Vardar underwent a merger with promoted club Miravci and won the league the next season.

7/10 - Győr 🇭🇺 Győr have an unusual stadium. Behind one of the goals is the balcony of the neighbouring ETO Park Hotel, where fans can buy a beer and watch the game without buying a ticket. We visited in 2023 and walked into the hotel to find a 'How To Get A Man' seminar taking place in the lobby.

6/10 - Atert Bissen 🇱🇺 Ex-player and construction entrepreneur Carlos Teixeira built the stadium in Bissen and was then persuaded by the local mayor to become the club's president. Teixeira has since taken Atert Bissen from Luxembourg's third tier to national champions in three seasons!

5/10 - TNS 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 The Welsh club who sparked Jeff Stelling's famous line "They'll be dancing in the streets of Total Network Solutions tonight" are not from Wales; they are based in Oswestry, England. A decade ago in 2016, they broke the European record for the most top-flight games won in a row (27).

4/10 - Lincoln Red Imps 🇬🇮 Located at the foot of the Iberian peninsula in Gibraltar, UEFA's smallest member at 6.8km2, Lincoln Red Imps once stunned Scottish giants Celtic in Champions League qualifying! They are among Europe's most dominant teams, having won 30 Gibraltar National Division titles.

3/10 - Larne ☘️ Larne were bottom of Northern Ireland’s second tier and getting only 50 fans when they were bought by businessman Kenny Bruce in 2018. Fast-forward 5 years and Larne won the first league title in their 134-year history, becoming the first champions from outside Belfast since 2002.

2/10 - KÍ Klaksvík 🇫🇴 Reachable from the capital Torshávn by undersea tunnel, beautiful Klaksvík is home to the Faroese champions: KÍ. Known for inviting visiting fans for tea in their Conference League campaign in 2023/24, their star striker Árni Frederiksberg once worked selling frozen pizza.

1/10 - Víkingur Reykjavík 🇮🇸 Iceland's champions were founded in 1908 with the purpose of buying a football for a group of boys in Reykjavík. Axel Andrésson served as chairman at the age of 12, while Emil Thoroddsen (9) and Davíð Jóhannesson (11) were the secretary and the treasurer respectively.

🏆 Did you know that... 🇮🇸 ...Víkingur Reykjavík were founded by children? 🇱🇺 ...Atert Bissen's stadium was built by its president? 🇫🇴 ...KÍ Klaksvík's star striker used to sell frozen pizza? The UEFA Champions League first qualifying round starts today. Let's meet the standout teams! THREAD 🧵

🇳🇴 It is the greatest moment in Norwegian football history!!! Norway have eliminated record champions Brazil in the World Cup thanks to a brilliant second-half Erling Haaland double! Norway remain the only country that Brazil have ever played against but not beaten at any point!

🎙️ NEW BONUS POD 🎙️ 🆕 The debutants in the UEFA competitions this season 🆕 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Bournemouth 🇮🇹 Como 🇰🇿 Yelimay Semey 🇱🇺 Atert Bissen, Mondorf-Les-Bains 🇺🇦 LNZ Cherkasy 🇷🇸 Železničar Pančevo 🇧🇾 ML Vitebsk 🇦🇱 AF Elbasani 🇸🇮 Aluminij 🇧🇪 Sint-Truiden 🇵🇹 Torreense 🇮🇸 Vestri 🇸🇪 Mjällby Listen at patreon.com/sweeperpod

📺 𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗘𝗣𝗜𝗦𝗢𝗗𝗘 📺 The Only 6 Countries To Reach The World Cup Knockouts With 3 Draws Plus: 🇨🇻 Cape Verde’s meeting with Messi 🆕 The seven knockout debutants 🇦🇹🇪🇸 Austria & Spain’s ‘Habsburg Derby’ 🇰🇷 S. Korea’s presidential intervention 🇺🇾 Marcelo Bielsa’s massive meltdown

🇵🇾 Paraguay have pulled off a huge upset and won a World Cup knockout tie for only the second time ever, eliminating four-time champions Germany to go through to the round of 16. It is the first time in history that Germany have ever lost a penalty shootout at the tournament!

🏆 With the World Cup knockout stages now under way, a shoutout to the only group game in history that also served as a direct knockout tie: Group 4 at the 1950 World Cup in Brazil. Uruguay beat Bolivia 8-0 - in a two-team group caused by multiple withdrawals! They went on to win the trophy!

🇨🇻 Absolutely extraordinary from Cape Verde, who have gone unbeaten and reached the knockout phase in their first-ever World Cup finals campaign! Their reward? A meeting with reigning world champions Argentina and Lionel Messi in Miami next Saturday! Fantastic stuff for the Blue Sharks! 🦈

🎙️ Intrigued by the 'Disgrace of Gijón', the shadow it has cast over this match and the tournament format quirks that have led to this strange scenario ahead of Austria v. Algeria this weekend? Then you will love our podcast episode all about it. Find it below: 🟢 Spotify: bit.ly/SweeperGijon

8/8 - The irony 😂 It is certainly ironic, then, that the first meeting between Algeria & Austria is not only in the last round of World Cup group games, but also in the final match slot of the group phase. And that both teams - like Austria back in 1982 - may stand to benefit from a defeat.

7/8 - The rule change 📑 FIFA investigated but found no proof of a conspiracy and no written rules that were broken, meaning they had to allow the result to stand. But the match changed tournament football forever: the final group games at the World Cup have been played simultaneously ever since.

6/8 - The uproar 😡 The game, which became known as 'The Disgrace of Gijón', prompted outrage in Algeria and around the entire world. German commentator Eberhard Stanjek voiced the idea of a pact between the teams, his Austrian counterpart Robert Seeger encouraged viewers to turn their TVs off.

5/8 - The scandal 💥 It meant Austria & West Germany went into their final game the next day knowing a win for the latter by 1 or 2 goals would send them through at Algeria's expense. Horst Hrubesch scored in the 10th minute and the game soon slowed to a walking pace and ceased to be competitive!

4/8 - The debut 📅 Algeria played their first World Cup in 1982 and performed well, upsetting West Germany, then losing to Austria before beating Chile. But the two goals they conceded in the 3-2 win over Chile had big consequences for the group, whose games were not held simultaneously back then.

3/8 - The caveat ⚠️ It is, of course, not as simple as that: the third-placed team, currently Algeria, is not guaranteed to go through. But there is an irony that it is be these two countries meeting in the final round of group games at a World Cup knowing they may stand to benefit from a defeat.