The Assistant Professor of Football: Soccer, Culture, History.

Oct 28 2024 48 ep. 67 mins 4
The Assistant Professor of Football: Soccer, Culture, History. Podcast artwork

The academic treatment for English-speakers who get that soccer is more than gamedays, stars and goals. Who wonder about the histories, subcultures and politics that make the game so different from many American sports cultures; and who care about a critical take on soccer as a global capitalist machine. A European-guided journey, with one expert "visiting professor" each episode. 

  Sports  History  Society & Culture
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Reformation Day Special: David Kilpatrick's 95 Theses (plus updates from Leeds on Red Bull, and from me on the former Chicago Red Stars)

Oct 28 2024 87 mins  
NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Martin Luther (not the King) nailed 95 protest theses against the Christian church of his day to a church door in Germany on October 31st 1517. And Protestants , properly understood, have been protesting ever since. As we near "Reformation Day" again, David Kilpatri

Rayo Vallecano and its Neighborhood: An Unusual Spanish Fall Break Destination

Oct 14 2024 73 mins  
NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Today, we are taking a Fall break trip to Vallecas, a working class neighborhood in the Spanish capital Madrid. La Liga - the Spanish first league - holds global appeal chiefly due to its two dominators and their massive global following. However, there are wonderfu

The Devil Came to Yorkshire: Leeds United and Red Bull

Sep 30 2024 75 mins  
NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) The McDonald’s on Elland Road in Leeds, near the stadium of Leeds United, is, apparently, the only McDonald’s there is that has removed any element with the color red. Because Red, that is Manchester United, the rose of Lancaster in the badge of Manchester City.

Emancipation and Migration: Hakoah Vienna, Austria's Jewish Champion 1925

Sep 16 2024 77 mins  
NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) In a bit of a parallel episode to Episode 24 ("The Footballer who Defied the Nazis? The Myth of Matthias Sindelar"), this is the story of Hakoach Vienna. A child of central European Jewish emancipation movements and of the "muscular religion" fashionable at the time

Football Utopias: An English-Language Exclusive on Creating Better Footballing Worlds with Alina Schwermer

Sep 02 2024 72 mins  
NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) To critique the state of our world, our communities, to critique what is wrong with soccer in late stage capitalism is one thing. It actually isn’t a hard thing. But to dream, think and even plan for a better world, and a better football, that is something differe

Iceland to Moldova in 50 Minutes: The Joy, Madness and Method of the UEFA Club Tournaments' Qualifying Rounds

Aug 19 2024 58 mins  
NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Gent in Belgium. Rasgrad in Bulgaria. Mostar in Bosnia. Borås in Sweden. Tiraspol in, well, Moldova. Or Differdange in LuxemburgIf you know where these places are, have some sense of what it looks like there, what the vibe is, perhaps it is because of the early UEF

"This Is Our Club!" The Summer Wind that Might Become a Fall Storm in England

Aug 05 2024 75 mins  
NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) If you follow a club that plays in the English Premier League, you may have gotten wind of it: over the Summer, quite a few clubs increased their season ticket prices, and phased out - or partially phased out - discounted tickets for kids and seniors, so called conc

Summer Round-Up: Sturm Graz, GAK, Degerfors, 1860, Bayern Munich, Olympique Marseille, FC St. Gallen, Bundesliga Investors, Football Tourism

Jun 24 2024 76 mins  
NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) The end of Season 2 of The Assistant Professor of Football is nigh, and we check in with guests from the last year to hear how their club, cause or research have been doing. Here are, in order: Peter K Wagner on Sturm Graz’s sensational champions league and cup wi

Support Your Local Club! Goshen City FC, and Semi-Professional Soccer in Small-Town America

Jun 10 2024 69 mins  
NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Goshen, Indiana is home to a private college without an American Football team - and, most recently, a semi-professional soccer club that serves as an - albeit unusual - case study for how grassroots soccer in the U.S. can thrive and build a community. The overarchi

The 777 Files: Investigating the Strange Multi-Club-Owner that Wants to Buy Everton

May 27 2024 77 mins  
NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Today's episode is a mix between soccer detective story and true crime podcasting. British investigative journalist Paul Brown is our Visiting Professor for the day. He and his colleague Philippe Auclair have piled up pathbreaking research on the backstory, money tr