FootPol Returns! Season Two Opener

Welcome back to the second season of the FootPol Podcast! This week, we dive into the latest political news in Football World. FIFA's recent non-decision on suspending Israel for its actions in Gaza and Argentine players facing backlash for racist chants are in the spotlight. Stay tuned as we discuss FIFA's plans to engage skeptical audiences for the expanded Club World Cup. Additionally, we address the controversy surrounding the interim England manager's choice not to sing the British anthem and Real Madrid players' stance against racist abuse. Exciting insights on upcoming episodes await our listeners this season!

Transcript

Season Two Opener: Summer Catch-Up and What's to Come

Guy Burton 00:08

Hello, and welcome to the second season of FootPol, the place where football meets politics. I'm one of your co -hosts, Guy Burton, and I'm joined by my other co -host, Francesco Belcastro. Francesco, how are you doing today? 

Francesco Belcastro 00:19

I'm fine, Guy. How are you? Welcome back to our listeners, the second season, I'm very excited. 

Guy Burton 00:25

Yeah, exactly. It's been, we've been away for a while, haven't we? What's been happening? 

Francesco Belcastro 00:29

We had it in two months, two months, yeah. 

Francesco Belcastro 00:31

And we sort of had an Insta- FootPol, and I like to call them at some point in July that listeners should check out, but other than that, we've been away for a month and a half. So I know you've been working hard on new episodes, so well done. 

Guy Burton 00:45

We've been working hard on new episodes, but there's also been some domestic stuff going on as well, hasn't there? Because I've moved from Brussels and Belgium, where I was previously, down to the near the Swiss border in France, because of, you know, work -related matters, and, you know, there's been a lot of change, upheaval over the last month, with house moving, small children, keeping them occupied. 

Francesco Belcastro 01:07

What does the meaning of football, football allegiance, have you changed football clubs? 

Guy Burton 01:12

Well, I have been going to a couple of games, the nearest team to me, which is Servette, a Geneva team, not as, how can I put it? I mean, stadium's quite nice, but they don't completely fill it. 

Guy Burton 01:26

I did see them play against Chelsea in the, I think it was the Europa League playoff, which they didn't do. Well, they won it, but it was a moral victory because all the damage had been done in, you know, at Stamford Bridge. 

Guy Burton 01:39

So now I'm going to be watching Swiss football. I don't have any more... 

Francesco Belcastro 01:43

Beautiful jerseys, Servette, traditionally, so as a jersey collector, if you ever want to get one from me, please feel free!

Guy Burton 01:51

Okay, all right. I will keep that in mind for you. And what about you? What have you been up to over the summer? 

Francesco Belcastro 01:58

So there have been a few things. Move to a new house. still in London, but still in North London, but a new house. 

Francesco Belcastro 02:04

And the main thing is that the family has expanded. We have welcomed baby Maya as she was born a few weeks ago. And she's very subscribed to our podcast. So people should follow her example and subscribe to FootPol. 

Guy Burton 02:20

Yeah. And we may well hear her at some point in the course of the season, I think. 

Francesco Belcastro 02:24

Definitely. Definitely. They're going to be days in which is going to be our third co- host. 

Guy Burton 02:32

Yeah. So listen, besides all of that, when we left, it was a mid -July, wasn't it? 

Guy Burton 02:37

And we decided to take a break. It's now we're coming up to mid -September. So we've been away for a couple of months. What's been going on in the world of football and politics? 

Francesco Belcastro 02:48

Well, there's been a lot of stuff going on. 

Francesco Belcastro 02:50

So when we left, the main thing, the main discussion, I think, was about Israel's right play football. Let's not forget, we started our podcast in early October, 2023. And about the same time, the war on Gaza started. 

Francesco Belcastro 03:13

We now know we can be confident, call it a genocide. So the main discussion has been, I think, on that subject, on whether states should be allowed to play, while engaging in gross violations of international law. 

Francesco Belcastro 03:34

And obviously, in the last season, we also had a couple of people that came on the podcast to speak about this. We had an episode with Karim Zidane and Kat Pijetlovic. That was a very good one. And I think would encourage listeners to check it out, because it's still unfortunately very, very relevant. 

Francesco Belcastro 03:54

And also the comparison, for example, with the case of Ukraine and Russia, right? Russia being partially excluded from competitions and Israel being not, and we had an episode on Ukraine as well. Yeah. 

Francesco Belcastro 04:05

So that would be another one to... So this has been, I think, one of the themes over summer, but not the only one, Guy. There's something that's going on, right? 

Guy Burton 04:13

No, sure. But before we before we move on to those, I mean, but you were saying, I think when we left, it was the case that if the Palestinian Football Association had said that on the basis of what Israel was doing, that the Israeli Football Association should be banned from FIFA. 

Guy Burton 04:33

Where are we on that? 

Francesco Belcastro 04:35

There's been a request to postpone, to allow the two federations to present more documents, which to a lot of people seems like a way of fudging it, essentially. And so we are expecting soon, I think now, a follow up decision or, or, you know, a bit more into what's going to happen. 

Francesco Belcastro 04:58

But As far as I'm aware in this phase the Federation have been asked to produce more documents. 

Guy Burton 05:04

Yeah.

Francesco Belcastro 05:04

And the Israeli Federation the Palestinian one There's obviously been a growing momentum in terms of in terms of that a few days ago Israel was playing in European qualifications and one of the matches was against Italy, so I've watched part of that. Now Israel is currently playing in Hungary, which in itself is very very interesting. Now this could it could be for different reasons, right? 

Francesco Belcastro 05:34

It could be because Hungary still has a small but symbolically very important Jewish community, so it could be because of the growing closeness and alliance between Netanyahu and the European right and [Prime Minister] Orban in this case. So that's been an interesting aspect you know Israel playing in Hungary and what's been more interesting is that the stadium was very empty but it was a small representation of Italian supporters that decided to turn their back while the while the Israeli national anthem was played as a way of of showing their unhappiness that is really is allowed to play and allowed to play in European qualification. 

Francesco Belcastro 06:17

So that's an ongoing topic i think yeah in terms of FIFA we we probably should bring some expert in at some point and tell us what's going on... 

Guy Burton 06:28

Yeah 

Francesco Belcastro 06:28

...and what are the consequences of that really.

Guy Burton 06:30

Yeah so that was so that was a big story that was well kind of delayed deferred over the over the the summer months. We had expected i think we talked about it that that what FIFA was saying that they were going to come out with a decision on this in July but that was before the Olympics and of course Israel was at the Olympics. The first time in a very long time the men's team and then that's been sort of delayed to to October so are we going to see a you know decision made there? We will keep our eye on it won't we? But FIFA also been in the news for other reasons as well hasn't it?

Francesco Belcastro 07:01

Has it?

Guy Burton 07:01

Yes because if you if you if you recall again sort of you know avoiding making decisions if you remember just before we left um after Argentina won the Copa America there was that whole um situation where um you know um uh the the player won't get me get me right here i think it's Fernandez wasn't it who was uh videoed the same rate with a racist chance against the French um but of course the French FA you know lodged a protest you know sort of a case um i've kind of bounced and with the argentine political establishment including the vice president sort of saying there's nothing to see here um FIFA found themselves caught in the middle and they uh basically said we need a report. We need- we need we need an inquiry into all of this so again we we haven't got a decision from FIFA until probably next month at the earliest. 

Francesco Belcastro 07:54

This has been the standard response by FIFA in the last 20 years, whenever there is a certain sort of political pickle right, it's, we need a report, we need a report. 

Guy Burton 08:02

Yeah, which is kind of, I mean, you know, they like to say that they're an apolitical organization, that they don't do politics, but I'm afraid politics gets into football. 

Guy Burton 08:09

And so, you know, whether FIFA likes it or not, there is politics in it. 

Francesco Belcastro 08:13

I mean, their claim to be apolitical is as likely as your claim, not wanting to buy Aldershot Town. They're both really, really... 

Guy Burton 08:25

I am not buying Aldershot Town my friend! It is, you know, this is a milestone around my neck. 

Francesco Belcastro 08:30

It's exactly what infantino would say about not meddling in politics!

Guy Burton 08:32

If there's one thing I've learned about, you know, from doing this podcast and also following all the shot, it's that and reading about football, I've read so much about football over the last year, is that, you know, being the owner of a club is is a one way ticket to penury. 

Guy Burton 08:48

But anyway, the other things about FIFA as well that we've we've also noticed as well, because you know, they want to expand the footballing calendar, don't they they want to, they want to introduce an expanded World Cup, we know that it's going to be going from, you know, 32 teams to 48 at the next World Cup, they want to bring in a World Club competition, which is going to be much bigger than the than sort of the two week...

Francesco Belcastro 09:07

It's been confirmed.

Guy Burton 09:08

It has been, yes. 

Francesco Belcastro 09:10

And so all of this next year, or the year after.

Guy Burton 09:12

Exactly. And, and all of this, you know, comes on top of elite football, elite football as an athlete, you know, facing real pressure, you know, at the domestic level, I mean, they...

Francesco Belcastro 09:22

Let's not forget in a European context this year, next week, yeah, this week. 

Francesco Belcastro 09:29

Let me get rid of the reference of the exact... we're just seeing the new Champions League starting with with an increased number of matches. Every team is going to be playing, I think eight matches minimum if they qualify as opposed to six before. 

Francesco Belcastro 09:48

Yeah. So it's an increase in number of matches and more and more players and more and more managers have expressed their concern about these. And I think it's I think it's a reasonable thing. I think it's, I think it's a concern. 

Francesco Belcastro 10:01

The backdrop of this is in a lot of countries debate about diminishing the number of teams per division, The French have done it two years ago now. And in other contexts in Serie A, for example, in Italy, there's a debate with 20, 20 clubs, perhaps too much. Too many matches, you know... We had a few episodes where we discussed the impact of playing too much on players, including one from the front of you, 

Francesco Belcastro 10:27

trade unions, right? So there are concerns there, definitely, the greediness of the football world ends up impacting on health of players, I think. 

Guy Burton 10:37

Exactly. And so because of this, because FIFA, I mean, you know, they're a big cash cow is the World Cup, isn't it? 

Guy Burton 10:42

And beyond that, they're looking for other sources of revenue. And one of those is the idea of expanding the World Club Cup, you know, for all the champions of all the different confederations, but expanding it beyond just those champions so that they had, they would have kind of league, a little bit like the Champions League. 

Guy Burton 11:01

But that is going to mean more games, more and, you know, more risk for players, more pressure on players. And as a result of this, I believe that FIFA is looking to try and do almost a bit of a backward consultation by talking to the various leagues and trade unions associated with footballers to try and get them on side. So that's going to be something else to watch I think over the coming coming months um whether... I mean they will go for it but uh you know will they allay the concerns that that that these that the players players unions have.

Francesco Belcastro 11:30

Well qualifying for this tournament is already i think it it brings you a minimum of 25 pounds at the moment in terms of income?

Guy Burton 11:40

Sorry did you say 25 million because you got got cut off right there. 

Francesco Belcastro 11:44

So 25 million yeah i think it's that's the minimum yeah just for qualifying, so it's uh it's big money particularly in the context where a lot of clubs uh even in big European countries are struggling so it's um yeah it's...

Guy Burton 12:00

Yeah so and and and we've simply been we've been saying quite a lot about FIFA already. It's also worth noting that we do have and um while we will come to this we're going to talk a little bit about later on about some of the episodes that we have coming up. But one of them just to give people a bit of a flavor is we're going to be talking about FIFA and the politics around FIFA particularly in relation to um uh the election of uh Joao Havelange in 1974 which was seen as a you know sort of an epochal shift in the way that fifa was judged to be kind of a little bit of a small amateurish outfit but then since 1974 and his involvement um you know became a more of this kind of commercial behemoth. Um.

Francesco Belcastro 12:40

And it's not going to be only an history episode this we don't talk about the repercussions in modern terms as well.

Guy Burton 12:46

Exactly and that's going to be with uh Luis Guilherme Burlamaqui who's a Brazilian historian who's written a fantastic book that i'm just finishing up um so we will be bringing him on to talk about that in a few weeks time um but beyond...

Francesco Belcastro 12:59

So FootPol's Brazilian uh love affair continues! 

Guy Burton 13:04

Well you know you had quite a few Italians at the end of the last season as well!

Francesco Belcastro 13:08

I love having Brazilians on the show they're fantastic guests. 

Guy Burton 13:13

Yeah, we did have some great episodes didn't we last year about...? 

Francesco Belcastro 13:16

Yeah, absolutely. About Brazil and with Brazilian colleagues and friends. Can I just say though, it's not going to be all like high football and you know, institutions and politics, sort of international level?

Francesco Belcastro 13:31

We, you know, I'm a big fan and a big believer in people's football. So we're going to be talking a lot about that. We're going to have an episode with Exeter Football Club, one of the most successful fan -owned clubs and model that has inspired a lot of clubs in the UK and in England and beyond. 

Francesco Belcastro 13:49

So that's going to be an interesting one. I think they just celebrated 20 years as a fan -owned club and they are a fantastic club. They're active in the community, do a lot of stuff locally. They produce some fantastic players as well. 

Francesco Belcastro 14:05

Olly Watkins was one of theirs once, which I remember correctly. So that's gonna be an episode that we're gonna have later on and definitely listeners should wait for it. It's a great one. 

Guy Burton 14:15

Yeah, and that's not the only one we've got coming up as well Is it because we've we've also got we're going to be talking about one of one of the forthcoming episodes we've got as well as is with the the podcast Football Heritage In which we're going to be talking to Rory who's there the the kind of the the convener of that about, you know various sort of clubs in the past, 

Guy Burton 14:37

you know ones that have sort of thrived and then declined And the lessons that he's he's learned from talking to all those different people about those those those clubs over the years. Some of which are smaller clubs, not necessarily the big ones that we were familiar with as well.

Francesco Belcastro 14:50

 Yeah, yeah,  we're talking about Irish football as well, aren't we?

Guy Burton 14:51

We've got we've got we've got the historian James Quinn coming on to talk about his his boo, No Foreign Game, 

Guy Burton 15:03

which looks at Irish football, but it's it's it looks a great read. It's... He covers, you know football in Ireland in Eire - southern Ireland - as well as Northern Ireland and and touches upon some of the you know, Irish connections to football in Scotland as well, doesn't he?

Francesco Belcastro 15:18

 I'm reading it now and it's it's a fascinating read and... Obviously sort of Irish football has been a lot in the news in Britain. 

Francesco Belcastro 15:26

Yeah, I know I know you are- not all the our listeners are in Britain, but the relationship between Great Britain, the monarchy and the former colony in the Republic of Ireland today has been a lot in the news because of the recent enough friendly European qualifiers- was it's Nation's League? 

Guy Burton 15:45

Nation's League, yeah. 

Francesco Belcastro 15:46

Nation's League, yeah exactly, between the Republic of Ireland and England where the English national anthem was booed and I wasn't taken very well by right -wing commentators.

Guy Burton 15:56

 Oh was it? I missed that one. But no, I was more for me the story was more about the interim English manager Lee Carsley who's replaced Gareth Southgate that there was a big furore before the game game, when he said that he would not be seeing the national anthem. 

Francesco Belcastro 16:13

Which he didn't.

Guy Burton 16:13

 Which he didn't. But let's also keep in mind, he was an Irish national, an Irish footballer as well, right? He played for Ireland. So they, I mean, of course, you know...

Francesco Belcastro 16:21

In fact ironically, ironically, the two goals were scored by two players who were, who've got Irish roots, because both Declan Rice and Jack Grealish have ancestry.

Guy Burton 16:31

Yes and apparently Declan Rice also did a non celebration celebration, right? 

Francesco Belcastro 16:36

Yeah, while Grealish, you know, in a very Grealish style, did celebrate! 

Guy Burton 16:42

Grealish has also, I mean, I think we should also say that Grealish is not necessarily one of the most politically savvy of footballers. 

Guy Burton 16:48

I think he, that would be a fair, fair, fair point to make. 

Francesco Belcastro 16:51

Possibly not,I would say for people who are also football fans, I think, I think Declan Rice, the way he conducts himself, on and off the pitch, you could imagine it's way more aware of what's around him politically than they really should be. 

Guy Burton 17:06

What are your impressions about this, Francesca? Because for me, it was a bit of a storm in a teacup. 

Guy Burton 17:11

I mean, for me, I don't think it was a bit of a non -story to me. I mean, I don't think it really matters whether or not. 

Francesco Belcastro 17:20

I mean, I think whether a manager with, in England, a manager with Irish roots sings or doesn't sing the national anthem, to me, it's not a big issue. 

Francesco Belcastro 17:30

But the fact that to a lot of people it is, it in itself tells a lot about identity and football, doesn't it? The same thing with this debate about Irish footballers or English footballers with Irish roots and whether they play for Ireland when they are young and then switch to England or the other way around. 

Francesco Belcastro 17:47

It tells a lot about the relationship between the Republic of Ireland and the past occupation. So, yeah, I understand why you would say it's a non -story in itself, but I think the fact that to a lot of people it's so important. 

Francesco Belcastro 18:04

It tells a lot about the relevance of football as an identity marker. 

Guy Burton 18:08

Yeah, and perhaps also the fact that I don't think it's much of an issue probably reflects my own personal politics as well. 

Francesco Belcastro 18:13

Definitely. If you were a sort of a nostalgic of the British Empire, you'd see this completely different. It would have a completely different conversation, which would be outraged that they don't understand. 

Guy Burton 18:25

Which also is a natural segueway for us to sort of plug one of our last episodes we did in the previous season, right? 

Guy Burton 18:33

When we talked to Jack Black about nostalgia in football. 

Francesco Belcastro 18:39

Yeah, we had an excellent episode and then we spoke a lot about English identity and the concept of nostalgia, which in football is a very prevalent one. 

Francesco Belcastro 18:48

I mean, it was very much an episode about England. But we found parallels in all the world and it's not a national level. It's also at club. Not only a national level, it's also at club level. It applies to sports other than football as well. 

Francesco Belcastro 19:03

So it's a very interesting episode. I think it's the last one, the second last we've done. 

Guy Burton 19:08

Yeah, well, it was supposed to be the last one before we had to then do our Insta FootPol, which by the way, the title in working in progress. 

Guy Burton 19:15

I'm still not convinced by it! 

Francesco Belcastro 19:17

Yeah, well, I mean, we'll see. We'll see whether that sticks or not. But yeah, listeners should definitely check that out. It's an excellent episode. 

Guy Burton 19:25

And then I think also in terms of other sort of stories that sort of stood out for me as well over the summer, there was an interview that Vini Junior, the Brazilian football player, gave at the end of August. 

Guy Burton 19:39

Now, you know Vini Junior, don't you? Not personally, but you know about him and why he matters. 

Francesco Belcastro 19:45

Yeah, but can you give our listeners owho perhaps don't follow Spanish football as much? Maybe they know him from the national team, but they don't know him from Real Madrid. 

Francesco Belcastro 19:54

Can you tell us a bit why he's such a... controversial political figure. And is there any episode that we did where they can learn a bit more about that? 

Guy Burton 20:02

Well, I was actually teeing you up for you to be able to tell, but okay, fine. 

Guy Burton 20:07

So Vini Jr. plays for Real Madrid, and he also plays for the Brazilian football team. But what's notable about or, you know, why he sort of gets a lot of attention from us is that, you know, being a black player, he's also been subject to a considerable amount of racism in Spain, right? 

Guy Burton 20:21

Most especially, I think particularly notable was a case about a year and a bit ago where he was, you know, there were three particular guys at one of the games who were really giving the chance. And they actually got prosecuted, and you know, earlier this year, and have been banned from football for the next two years. 

Guy Burton 20:39

But there was a lot of criticism at the time that both the club itself, that they were playing, I can't remember which one, just did not see this as a problem, and the Spanish league wasn't doing enough. 

Guy Burton 20:50

Now, there are rules, apparently, at the international level, that if racism, racist chanting is happening, that the referee has sort of a three -point stage to go through, the first being to ask over the loudspeakers for it to stop, if that doesn't happen, and it continues, then the referee can stop the game for about 10 minutes, and then thirdly, he can take the players off the pitch, right? 

Guy Burton 21:14

But all of this seems to be in the hands of the authorities. And what was interesting from Vini Jr's interview was how he was saying, just seemed to be indicating that this wasn't enough. That relying on the authorities to do it doesn't seem to be really making a difference, and that he had actually been saying that within the team, within Real Madrid, they've been talking collectively saying that if this happens, they will walk off, they will take it into their hands and leave the pitch. 

Guy Burton 21:42

Which I think was really interesting, because it's here, this is about player power, this is about players saying, you know, it's inadequate, what's being done by the institutions. And if you aren't going to act on it, then we are going to take steps to do something about it. 

Guy Burton 21:55

If we walk off, there is no spectacle. What do you think?

Francesco Belcastro 21:57

I think he's absolutely right. I think it I can absolutely see his point. I would... I think it's it's it's time that the authorities take these more seriously.

Guy Burton 22:06

Mm -hmm.

Francesco Belcastro 22:07

So I think players should really be doing that or consider to be doing that. I mean, there is another thing that I wanted to add is that there also we know it from from the past from other antisocial behaviors or similar issues in stadiums that needs to be... People need to be identified and people need to be banned from stadiums. 

Francesco Belcastro 22:27

So you can you cannot- Collective responsibility is not enough. Clubs need to be punished. But individuals that carry out, you know that go to the stadium and call a player a monkey as I happen in the case of Vinicius, they don't have to set foot in the stadium ever ever again. 

Francesco Belcastro 22:45

Yeah, so it's it and we you know There is a technology to do it now, stadiums are super controlled. So one wonders sometimes why it's not happening on a bigger scale. As you said, in the case of Spain, a couple of people are prosecuted. 

Francesco Belcastro 22:58

But, you know, it's a drop in the ocean. 

Guy Burton 23:01

Absolutely. 

Francesco Belcastro 23:01

People that do this kind of stuff, they don't have to go to the stadium anymore. They're not welcome in football. They shouldn't be anywhere. 

Guy Burton 23:07

But it does seem to be a case of, you know, it's always the bad apples, you know, sort of argument that, oh, you know, everything else is everything else is fine. 

Guy Burton 23:15

It's just these few, few idiots. But actually, but also there is something I think when we and we need to maybe explore that maybe we can explore this a little bit later in some of the episodes that we do this this season. 

Guy Burton 23:26

But, you know, the extent to which, you know, this kind of antisocial behavior, sort of racism, you know, homophobia, all of these, whichever whichever ones it is, it's not unique to individuals, right? 

Guy Burton 23:37

It is a reflection of of wider society, society. And so, you know, yes, you know, individuals should be punished and you and clubs do have the capacity to to act. They should also be held accountable. 

Guy Burton 23:50

But it's but, you know, the and this is a tension because, yes, it's something that needs to be dealt with in society more generally, but just because you deal with it in society more generally doesn't mean that you could that, you know, that clubs and and football authorities can pass the buck and say it's nothing to do with them. 

Francesco Belcastro 24:06

No, absolutely, absolutely. And it's I think it's sometimes clubs are not not serious enough for the the concern about, you know, the reaction, whether of their own fans or, you know, they just it's not a priority for them. 

Francesco Belcastro 24:20

So it's sad. And and I really, really appreciate. I really feel what Vinicius is saying. And I think it's been I think it's been a positive symbol. So so we had an episode right that that look at this specifically and people should check it out. 

Francesco Belcastro 24:35

Who was it? Our guest, Guy? 

Guy Burton 24:38

Ah, Jorge Knijnik, a Brazilian educator over down in Australia who wrote a book about Latin American football. And yeah... 

Francesco Belcastro 24:48

And it refers, yeah, he talks about this issue and is way better placed than we are to explain, particularly the importance of Vini Jr. in this. 

Guy Burton 24:59

Yeah, but you've just, because you mentioned, you flagged up sort of the episodes, I was also thinking, Francesco, you know, we touched a little bit upon one or two of the episodes that we've got coming up, right? 

Guy Burton 25:07

One on FIFA and the politics around FIFA and the history there. 

Francesco Belcastro 25:11

Exeter. 

Guy Burton 25:11

Yeah, Exeter and as well as Irish football. What else can listeners expect in the next few weeks? 

Francesco Belcastro 25:19

Well, I mean, first thing already has been a massive improvement in the quality of your microphone!

Francesco Belcastro 25:24

Well, that's something that's something the listeners should celebrate!

Guy Burton 25:27

 If you are a new listener, this is an ongoing joke that Francesco has been doing since January last year. 

Francesco Belcastro 25:36

Well, I mean, yes, because the guy has had some some IT issues. 

Francesco Belcastro 25:40

Well, should we perhaps remind listeners when the episodes are out and when can they expect them? Yeah, so it's going to be every Monday. Monday morning when they wake up, if European time, they'll find the first thing they'll get with their coffee. 

Francesco Belcastro 25:56

It's a good morning from from guy, a different guest every week. 

Guy Burton 26:01

Yeah. And and amongst those guests, some of the topics that we're going to be discussing, we've mentioned some of them already. But what else? 

Francesco Belcastro 26:08

We are going to be talking about the politics of e -sports, online games, online football in particular, and why that's growing and why that's politically relevant. That's one. 

Guy Burton 26:23

Well, we're going to be doing we're going to be looking at Iraqi football as well, aren't we? 

Guy Burton 26:26

So football in Iraq and how that connects to politics. 

Francesco Belcastro 26:30

Yeah, we also have a couple of episodes around the theme of gender later in the year. And one, I think we're going to be looking at injuries in football and sport equipment and the gender discussion around it, how often football gears are designed and studied for males and then adopted to female players and what kind of impact that as or as well as sort of the recovery from injuries and how the science there is very much. 

Francesco Belcastro 27:02

It's very much still biased towards body, so athletes, male athletes and why that's and how that could change, which I think brings us to to larger debates about gender and football. Yeah. We're going to have a couple of episodes about inclusivity in football as well, different angles. 

Francesco Belcastro 27:25

We're talking to a few very exciting guests that we hope to be able to announce soon. So that's something that listeners should be looking for. 

Francesco Belcastro 27:34

I mean, another thing which I should have said before and I forgot is that this is not a closed list. 

Francesco Belcastro 27:40

It's an open list and we want to know from listeners what they want us to cover. Yeah. So we've got ideas, we've got a lot of ideas that line up already, but some of the best steps, this will be last week, last week, last season guy, we're not my idea, we're not your idea, we're suggestions by listeners and by other guests. 

Francesco Belcastro 28:00

So people should really get in touch with us and tell us: I live in country B, there is this great researcher that works on this topic, why don't you interview him? Or I really want to know more about politics in that particular part of the world. 

Francesco Belcastro 28:16

And we are more than happy to get an episode sorted there. So we really rely on listeners a lot this year as well as we did last year for ideas. 

Guy Burton 28:26

Yeah. And certainly there are areas which we would definitely want to hear from listeners on. 

Guy Burton 28:32

If you look at what we've done over the last season, you know, we've done obviously quite a bit on European and Latin American football. We've touched a little bit into African and Asian football, but these are areas we'd love to do more on. 

Guy Burton 28:43

Also community clubs, as Francesco mentioned, lots of stuff about inclusivity, identity politics as well. And also one of the episodes that we will be having is looking at sort of how football began as well. 

Guy Burton 28:55

I think the politics and the history of how football got going. So keep an eye out for that as well in the next few weeks. Now, let's just before we wrap up, Francesco, last things to say, I mean, you've mentioned, and I think it's worth saying it again, because if people ever remember things, it's usually the last thing that's said, those episodes come out on Mondays. 

Guy Burton 29:17

Where else can people find out information about us? 

Francesco Belcastro 29:21

First of all, the episodes are available everywhere. So if they're getting it on one app, but they don't like this app they're getting it from, we are on Spotify, we are on Apple, all of the ones that they can think of, all of the main ones, we are available there. 

Francesco Belcastro 29:37

Not on Google anymore. I think Google has shut off its podcast app, if I remember correctly, but people can still access it. So yeah, we can be found everywhere in terms of listening to us. And we would ask people to please follow, rate, support different apps, give different options. 

Francesco Belcastro 29:58

Some people can just thumbs up for us. Some people can rate us. Five stars. I mean, talk about the podcast with friends and colleagues. 

Guy Burton 30:09

Send a link to them as well. Get them to listen to it. And also consider subscribing. 

Guy Burton 30:16

Important. 

Francesco Belcastro 30:17

Yeah. Yeah. And they can get in touch with us as well. 

Guy Burton 30:20

We have an email account. It's footpopodcast@gmail.com. 

Francesco Belcastro 30:26

It is, it is. So we're always happy to hear from people on suggestions, feedback, what we're doing well, what we should be improving. 

Francesco Belcastro 30:35

It's an important thing for us. And then the other thing, as I can get in touch with us via different social media. So we are on Twitter/X. If when this episode goes out next week, the Twitter/X still exists!

Francesco Belcastro 30:51

If it's not imploded...

Guy Burton 30:52

Or we've always been community noted! 

Francesco Belcastro 30:55

Exactly, exactly. Yeah, being exiled for being lefties! Yeah... Facebook, we're on Blue Sky, although it doesn't seem that a lot of people are there at the moment. 

Guy Burton 31:10

There is a migration of people from from Twitter/X to Blue Sky. So maybe we need to be doing more there as well. But you can find us...

Francesco Belcastro 31:18

Maybe we do. 

Guy Burton 31:19

And we're also we do have an Instagram account as well. 

Francesco Belcastro 31:22

We do. Yeah, yeah, where we mostly post pictures of Guy playing football in different setups! 

Guy Burton 31:29

Um, that is a lie!

Francesco Belcastro 31:31

It's not true! 

Guy Burton 31:31

And I do not, I do... I discourage anyone to go and look for the pictures! So yeah. 

Francesco Belcastro 31:40

And then, and we have both of us are on LinkedIn, right? 

Guy Burton 31:42

Yes. And we're both on LinkedIn and, uh, I need to get front. Well, I post, I post updates. And so when these, when these episodes come out, I do flag them up on my LinkedIn. Um, Francesco, uh, needs to do up his LinkedIn game. 

Francesco Belcastro 31:55

Yeah, definitely. Can I just ask you another thing, Guy? Because I know that some listeners that listen to this podcast also listen to another podcast that you are involved with. Has that one restarted? And can you tell us a bit about it? 

Guy Burton 32:09

Oh, you're too kind. No. So I do a brief podcast on Wednesday mornings called Ten Minutes On, which looks at some topic from the previous week's news. And I tried to do a quick sort of analysis analysis and summary. 

Guy Burton 32:21

Of that, um, event or events. And that's, it comes out every Wednesday, uh, wherever you get your podcasts from as well, Ten Minutes On. And also this year I've started doing a little bit of other kinds of podcasting, football related. 

Guy Burton 32:35

I'm a now part of the panel of When the Flames Go Up, which, uh, looks at Aldershot football club and, uh, you know, the highs and regular lows of being an Aldershot fan once a week. And that comes out, uh, sort of during the season as well. 

Guy Burton 32:49

And usually around Wednesday or Thursday, uh, looking at the games that happen at the weekend...

Francesco Belcastro 32:52

You're addicted to podcasting, Guy?

Guy Burton 32:54

I have become, I'm becoming a regular podcaster, aren't I? 

Francesco Belcastro 32:57

Yeah. 

Guy Burton 32:59

It's the future!

Francesco Belcastro 33:01

Definitely. Definitely. I have not checked out the older shot one. I will, but I did, uh, do listen regularly to your Ten Minutes On. I have to say someone who is now in a very busy with a young daughter few weeks and, and, and a busy job. 

Francesco Belcastro 33:13

I find it really, really useful to just get up to date with, with the news I wouldn't really get otherwise. So I really recommend people to subscribe. They can find you all now on all. the usual places. 

Francesco Belcastro 33:25

And it's 10 minutes so you know it doesn't take a lot of time and it's very informative so I would really recommend people to check it out please. 

Guy Burton 33:33

Well thank you for the little plug. Okay so we will I will see you again then next, sorry Friday, next Monday right Francesco? 

Francesco Belcastro 33:41

Monday we're gonna have our first proper episode with a guest. 

Guy Burton 33:46

What are you talking about? This was a proper episode! We talked about what's been happening over the last two months! 

Francesco Belcastro 33:50

We're gonna we're gonna have our first traditional episodes rather with the guest. And the guest is going to be Rory from Football Heritage. 

Francesco Belcastro 33:59

So it's going to be an interesting one for fans of the of the beautiful game and for people interested in the politics of football. 

Guy Burton 34:09

Yeah so do come do listen to us do look out for our episode next week and until then we'll see you again. And so thank you, Francesco, and have a good week. 

Francesco Belcastro 34:18

Take care, bye, bye, bye, bye.