The Assistant Professor of Football: Soccer, Culture, History.
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.
Episodes
48 episodes
Reformation Day Special: David Kilpatrick's 95 Theses (plus updates from Leeds on Red Bull, and from me on the former Chicago Red Stars)
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"...
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Season 3
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Episode 47
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1:27:33
Rayo Vallecano and its Neighborhood: An Unusual Spanish Fall Break Destination
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. Howev...
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Season 3
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Episode 46
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1:13:03
The Devil Came to Yorkshire: Leeds United and Red Bull
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 o...
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Season 3
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Episode 45
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1:15:00
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Emancipation and Migration: Hakoah Vienna, Austria's Jewish Champion 1925
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" f...
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Season 3
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Episode 44
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1:17:32
Football Utopias: An English-Language Exclusive on Creating Better Footballing Worlds with Alina Schwermer
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 ...
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Season 3
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Episode 43
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1:12:40
Iceland to Moldova in 50 Minutes: The Joy, Madness and Method of the UEFA Club Tournaments' Qualifying Rounds
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...
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Season 3
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Episode 42
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58:46
"This Is Our Club!" The Summer Wind that Might Become a Fall Storm in England
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 s...
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Season 3
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Episode 41
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1:15:45
Summer Round-Up: Sturm Graz, GAK, Degerfors, 1860, Bayern Munich, Olympique Marseille, FC St. Gallen, Bundesliga Investors, Football Tourism
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 sensati...
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Season 2
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Episode 40
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1:16:01
Support Your Local Club! Goshen City FC, and Semi-Professional Soccer in Small-Town America
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 co...
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Season 2
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Episode 39
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1:09:24
The 777 Files: Investigating the Strange Multi-Club-Owner that Wants to Buy Everton
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 t...
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Season 2
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Episode 38
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1:17:58
(No) Mustard at Continental Europe's Oldest Soccer Club: FC St. Gallen in Switzerland
We begin with the Eurovision Songcontest and end with Sturm Graz's cup win, but consider, most of all, FC St. Gallen. Saint who? True, if I would ask you who invented club football in Europe in continental Europe, would you guess that the answe...
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Season 2
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Episode 37
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1:12:54
Soccer is for the Fans? England’s proposed “Football Regulator” and the Struggle for the Soul of the Game
The excesses of global soccer capitalism are well documented on this podcast. Perhaps no footballing country is more affected than England, the birthplace of the modern game and home to arguably the wealthiest clubs and league. To take it up on...
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Season 2
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Episode 36
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1:00:45
Hertha Berliner SC: In Memoriam Kay Bernstein
Kay Bernstein was elected the president of Hertha BSC, then in the 1st Bundesliga, in June 2022. He died at his home near Berlin on January 16th of this year, with Hertha being in the 2nd Bundesliga. What sounds like a short and - on the pitch ...
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Season 2
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Episode 35
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1:16:12
Time Travel to Europe's Wild East: Stalinist Albania and Soccer
"The era is brought to life by the accounts of Albanians who lived through it, which capture the importance of football to a populace starved of any other source of communal enjoyment. The otherworldliness and innate cruelty of the Stalinist re...
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Season 2
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Episode 34
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1:28:14
Rush Episode! German Bundesliga Investor Deal Dies Live on Air with Raphael Molter...
... of all people! Raphael is a German political scientist, whose book "Peace to the Terraces, War to the Federations and Leagues" is a pathbreaking materialist critique of "modern soccer" - the game as purely an entertainment market commodity....
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Season 2
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Episode 33
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1:07:36
A Soccer Culture Playlist 2.0 - 12 Football-Related Songs from 8 Countries
Indie, Hip Hop, Punk, Reggae, Ska and Choruses- from Leeds to Istanbul, from Vienna to Mexico City, from Darmstadt to Buenos Aires. Your second soccer playlist is here - with some background info, and plenty of quirky football lyrics.PL...
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Season 2
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Episode 32
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38:00
How (not) to be a Premier League Tourist - with Felipe Tobar
If you are thinking of dreaming of going to England, seeing a Premier League game, dive into the atmosphere that you see on TV, or even have concrete travel plans already to finally see one game of the club you otherwise follow on TV, then this...
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Season 2
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Episode 31
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1:12:16
Trauma, Diversity and Fanaticism: Israel and Soccer after October 7th
I thought today’s episode needed a long rationalization. But as I was writing it, I thought f*** it, I don’t need to be doing verbal gymnastics. I know human beings, there, and our guest does too. So we’ll just let these stories spe...
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Season 2
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Episode 30
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1:22:01
At a Soccer Crossroads: Polish Football Culture in the 21st Century
Just a few weeks ago, Poland elected a new parliament. The result was a change in power, from the national conservative camp to the centrist, pro-European one. And the campaign, yet again, highlighted, to use an overused term, the culture wars ...
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Season 2
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Episode 29
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1:12:39
The War Game: a Holiday Read-Aloud
A mini audiobook - for the time to think in the evenings after the presents have all been unwrapped, or for a listen with the children:As the story goes, on Christmas 1914, during world war 1, in the trenches of Belgium, German and Engl...
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Season 2
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Episode 28
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31:33
Europe's Multicultural Bellwether and it's "Crazy Club:" The Wild Ride of Olympique Marseille
An arranged marriage of a Greek and a Celt began the settlement of Massalia, today: Marseille. Europe’s bellwether of multiculturalism, 2nd city of France, one of Europe’s biggest ports, migrant destination for centuries, cauldron of socioecono...
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Season 2
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Episode 27
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1:23:22
FC St.Pauli: Rebellion and Commercialization, Punk and Social Work
FC St. Pauli is a 2nd Bundesliga team from Hamburg. That’s one thing. It is also "Germany’s original cult club," an "antifascist pioneer," the "club of punk and techno, or a "swashbuckling left wing club." The history behind these labels begin ...
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Season 2
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Episode 26
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1:13:15
Cooler Little Sisters: The Graz Derby in Austria, Sturm vs. GAK
On Thursday, November 2nd, the second largest city of Austria, Graz, will see its second soccer derby in the last 16 years, in the Austrian cup tournament. Sturm Graz, currently leaders of the Austrian Bundesliga and Europa League starter...
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Season 2
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Episode 25
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1:27:53
The Footballer who Defied the Nazis? The Myth of Matthias Sindelar, and the Myth of Austrian Victimhood
Matthias Sindelar was, and is, the most famous Austrian footballer between World Wars 1 and 2. Known for his elegant style of play during a period when Austrian soccer was admired as an innovative model, he defined Austria’s national team, know...
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Season 2
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Episode 24
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1:21:36
The Shirt: A Material History of Soccer, from Rags to Fashion and Cotton to Polyester
Soccer jerseys, kits, football shirts - whatever the name, there is no shortage of opinions about them. Pretty or ugly, traditional or not, brands, costs, sponsors; whether to own only those we have connections to, or buy them for style, ...
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Season 2
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Episode 23
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1:02:13
