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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.
The Assistant Professor of Football: Soccer, Culture, History.
Behind the Scenes on a UEFA Conference League gameday, at Slovenian upstarts NK Celje
Before the Conference League anthem came on in Celje Slovenia, one warm August night this year, today’s guest had a lot of work behind him already while I was was on my way via train, uber and rental car from Bosnia. He is Rok Gregoric, press and pr wizard of NK Celje, a Slovenian club that was long a middling in the league of an already small country but has made it to the group phase of the conference league last year and again this year. A remarkable feat for a really pretty quiet city between the two main Slovenian cities Ljubljana and Maribor. Find out why. But also: what goes on in a smaller club when a UEFA competition comes to town? How do they coordinate with the visitors? What security arrangements have to be made? Where does all the UEFA signage come from? Which media gets which access? Rok takes us behind the scenes of his work, and shares about the club and the city - and a remarkable coach.
HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:
NK Celje, website
Celje, with city history, Wikipedia
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Artwork for The Assistant Professor of Football is by Saige Lind
Instrumental music for this podcast, including the introduction track, is by the artist Ketsa and used under a Creative Commons license through Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/