Part 1 focuses on all the international news from Europe. Austria’s sink hole problem continues, as Ralf Rangnick rides an e-bike around the stadium. Romania’s Mircea Lucescu becomes the second-oldest international coach of all time. Kosovo are world champions – sort of. Norway beat Moldova so badly that Erling Haaland apologises in-game to the goalkeeper. And Slovakia and Iceland pick up famous World Cup qualifying wins.
In Part 2, it’s on to the rest of the world. Strategic decisions from Suriname and Bolivia – sports passports and high altitude respectively – aid their WC qualifying campaigns. New Caledonia agree a friendly with…Gibraltar 17,500km away. Our upcoming trip to Nepal is put on hold due to civil unrest in the country. And the Northern Mariana Islands’ U23s face China in one of the biggest population disparities in world football.
#internationalfootball #worldcup #worldcup2026 #worldcupqualification #footballpodcast #worldfootball
Chapters:
00:00 – Intro
00:58 – Austrian sink holes and bicycles
05:34 – Mircea Lucescu: Football’s oldest coach?
09:08 – The 2025 Amateur Nations Cup
11:14 – The World Tram Driver Championship
13:48 – Kosovo’s unofficial world title
16:18 – UEFA’s seven banned match-ups
21:35 – Norway’s demolition job on Moldova
26:33 – Celebrations for Slovakia & Iceland
31:03 – Suriname’s World Cup push
34:59 – Bolivia’s strategic masterclass
38:25 – New Caledonia’s Gibraltar friendly
40:56 – Uzbekistan are Central Asian champions
42:29 – Nepal’s protest-related cancellation
45:02 – China’s U23s thrash Northern Mariana Islands
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• Hosts: Lee Wingate and Paul Watson
• Editor: Ralph Foster
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About The Sweeper
Welcome to The Sweeper, the world football podcast made in association with FIFA+. Join Lee Wingate and Paul Watson every second Wednesday as they bring you the best headlines from across the football world and tell you the stories that you won’t hear elsewhere.
Whether it’s a Greenlandic club withdrawing from the championship to go reindeer hunting, scuffles on the sidelines in the Vatican City’s league, a team in Turkmenistan who win every game, or turtles stopping play on Ascension Island, The Sweeper has you covered!
[Music] Coming up on this episode, Austria’s sinkhole problem returns. Kosovo become unofficial world champions. Muldova have a day to forget. Surinam benefit from sports passports. And Bolivia turn to altitude again. [Music] Hello, hello, and welcome to the Sweeper, the world football podcast made in association with FIFA Plus. I’m Lee Winggate and I’m Paul Watson. And usually around the international windows, we try to find a balance on our episodes between international and club football, but ultimately we go where the stories are. And our best ones were all from international football this time around. We’re going to start in Europe in part one. Paul, where do you want to go first? Austria, Kosovo, or Muldova? I think we should start in Austria, Lee. And that’s not just because you’re in Austria, but it’s because it’s a topic I really want to hear your opinion on. All right, let’s let’s dive into it. Let’s start with the sport because this was a big international window for Austria, who haven’t been at a World Cup since 1998. And at the start of this group, Bosnia and Herzgo pulled into a strong lead with 12 points from four games. But Austria are now level with Bosnia, having played a game fewer after beating Cyprus and then going away to Bosnia and winning 2-1. So big from a sports perspective for Austria. But I think what you’re referring to, Paul, are the off the- pitch stories. Starting with the sinkhole problem because in the game against Cyprus on the pitch at the Rifisen Arena, a sinkhole of 30 to 40 cm appeared in the turf leading to the game being postponed for 7 minutes so that it could be filled with soil so the game could could continue again. But what is even more bizarre about this is it’s the second time in 3 years that this has happened because at the nation’s league game against Denmark in 2022, an even bigger sinkhole appeared at a different stadium. The uh the anaphon in Vienna. So Austria has a sinkhole problem. Yeah. And this is the weirdest thing. So when I saw this story pop up, my first thought was that it was repeating an old story. I thought people had got hold of an old story and they were regurgitating it. Then when I realized it was a new sinkhole, I presumed it was also at the Ernst Tapol stadium and that there’s a really big problem there. But for it to be a different stadium, another sinkhole during an Austria match, what’s going on, Lee? Is is is there some sort of fault line in Austria that we don’t know about? It’s it’s really bizarre, isn’t it? I think so. for for the ounce tapion, it was a bit more explainable because that is a very old stadium and apparently there were sort of hidden cavities underneath the soil that can be activated by weather conditions. So when water seeps in, they sort of collapse upwards. So I think it was attributed to being a one-off due to an old pitch. But the interesting thing is that the Cypress game was played at Lask’s Raphaisen Arena in Lintz where the you know the pitch was only laid in 2023. That was when the stadium opened. So this is happening at a brand new stadium now. It’s bizarre. Like there’s no explanation at all for this then. I I mean I I genuinely don’t get it. And I think if Austria was due to be hosting something I’ I’d be a bit concerned right now because the size of these holes, right? So I think I think you mentioned them theoretically and I I’ve seen it written, but the one that really kind of brought it home to me was that it’s it’s the size of a football, wasn’t it? This latest hole, but that’s really pretty big hole to have in a pitch. Yeah. And the the first one at the ounce tap daddy on after the final whistle a Denmark player put his leg in it to show how deep it was and it went all the way up to his knee. So you imagine if you’re like a footballer and you end up stepping in something like that, that will that’ll break your leg, won’t it? So, it’s obviously very dangerous and it poses an increased risk of injury. I think it’s a very bad look for the Austrian FA and I think they need to find a playing surface that doesn’t suddenly open up with a sinkhole. This is worse than my childhood Sabutoio. We lost a lot of good men on my Subutio pictures and my mom would hoover a few of them up. I mean, we’re getting towards that point, aren’t we? You know what was also quite funny over the international break to do with Austria. It’s Ralph Ranik, the coach, cycling around on an ebike because he’s had an ankle operation and he’s been told to take it easy, not walk too much. And I’ve just got this visions of the of Ralph Randick driving his ebike into into a sinkhole. How he would have wanted to go. I think I can imagine Ralph Rand that’s his only promotion now, isn’t it? Like you go from being like coach and and sort of technical director and then you’re just in the surface. He’s just part of the pitch. Um, no, it’s very cool seeing him on, but I’ve never seen anyone do that. I don’t think I don’t ever remember a manager cycling across the field to give a team talk. He just has He’s very naturally cool in my opinion, Ralph Randic. It’s like he never tries to be, but he just says stuff and does stuff that I just think, yeah, he’s just a cool guy. Yeah, he he wasn’t up for cycling then either. It wasn’t ebike, so minimizing minimizing the the effort, but I suppose that is understandable in the circumstances. Ralph Ranek was not the only coach that made headlines in this particular World Cup qualification group over the September window. Romania boss Misa Luchescu became what pool in September. Now he is the oldest international football coach ever is he close. He’s the oldest coach currently active in world football at 80 years and I think 30 days. 80 years and one month approximately when he took charge of the games against Canada and Cyprus. Well, so people have gone longer than that cuz I was trying to think if I could think of a manager that that sort of jumped out at me as definitely being older than that. I couldn’t think of one. There is one in the international game and one in the club game who are just narrowly older than Miss Luchescu and these both happened fairly recently. So in international football you may have heard of Otto Fista of Germany who managed Afghanistan against Cambodia in an Asian Cup qualifier in March 2018 at the age of 80 years and 123 days. But the very oldest coach according to the IFSHS is Roger Lameair of France who managed to dael versus club Africa in the Tunisian league in March 2022 at the age of 80 years 260 days. Actually Luchescu is pretty close to breaking that. Yeah. Um although there is talk that he’s going to leave, isn’t there? Is there is there some some people are saying he might leave right now? Um I I don’t know why that is. Is that or have I made that up? I think it was a disappointing result against Cyprus and so he has offered his resignation if the Romanian FA can find a viable alternative. So there’s a lot of ifs and buts here if Luchescu stays in the job if Romania somehow managed to qualify for the World Cup. But he would then become the oldest coach in football history during the tournament. God, that is incredible, isn’t it? What what an amazing record that is. I mean, he’s had he’s had a phenomenal career. um you know just just one of these people that has been around forever, done so many incredible things. Um I was surprised to see him popping back up though. I wonder what kind of a message it does send to other coaches in the country if you’re still calling on an 80-year-old. Really? Yeah. And an 80year-old who was actually previously coached the Romania national team between 1981 and 1986. So that’s so long ago that none of his current squad were even born the last time he was Romania coach. That is an amazing statistic, isn’t it? Yeah. I mean, you just also think the stress of the job and the pressures it puts you under to still be doing that at 80. Although, as I say that, I’m kind of aware that the president of the United States is often about that’s probably quite a stressful job, too. But, you know, it’s it’s amazing to think you you can still be doing that at that age. And, um, I would love to see him make it to the World Cup just as, you know, he is a legend. I can’t wait for us to still be making the sweeper in 2070 at the age of of 81 and 86 respectively. Could you imagine some of the stories we’d be harking back to Lee? I think 45 years ago there was a sinkhole in Austria. There’s just so many like the third sinkhole opens up in 40 years time. We’re like this just always happens in Austria. Paul, do you remember that time when San Marino had never won a game? Yeah. And now obviously they’re world champions. It’s hard to remember but h that to look forward to. We’ve got a few other headlines to round up from Austria. I think the amateur nations cup is something that’s caught our attention. Paul, a European football tournament for amateur national teams taking place in Vienna from the 5th to the 8th of October. But why has this specifically piqu our interest? Because Greenland are going to be there. This is their um I suppose this is their chance to play some competitive football. Having been rejected by Conquer Cafe and having FIFA options taken off the table, they are planning to take part in this competition in Austria. I also like to think they’re just visiting you, Lee, but um maybe they’ll stay with you. But um it yeah, it it’s an interesting competition. I I’ll be totally honest. I’ve struggled to find much information in terms of you know, this is quite soon. But I can’t seem to see the schedule or or the fixtures, you know, the timings of it. Have you managed to find that? Weirdly, they have published the match day two fixtures, but not the match day one ones. Um, not not highly logical, but it’s taking place at which is uh in in Lower Austria outside of Vienna. So, I’ll I’m I’m sure I’ll pop along to that. It’s got Austria, Bosnia, and Herzuggovern, Slovenia, and and as you say, Greenland. Um, yeah, it’s going to be interesting. I think it’s a chance for, as you say, for Greenland to sort of play some kind of football because we’ve been sort of hypothesizing about what their next steps would be after the conquer calf rejection. Yeah, exactly. And I think this could be a really good test for their players. Um, interesting to see how the level compares. So, the idea of there being amateur national teams was interesting to me, too. I was trying to work out which countries have an amateur national team because in certain countries that will be easier to pick than others I suppose because for example in England you you have this kind of semi-professional level that goes really far down but it’s not totally clear where you switch from being fully amateur to being semipro. Um so yeah I I was intrigued to see which countries have a sort of recognized amateur team. Um and it seems like a funny mix doesn’t it? It seems like quite central European in its in its um makeup. Austria also made headlines for another reason. Paul, do you know what title they won at the weekend? Oh, no, they didn’t. They didn’t win the tram driver world championships, did they? They certainly did. Yes. On soil. We’re going to take a brief No sink holes fortunately for the trams. Um, we’re we’re going to take a brief diversion into the world of tram driving because I was with friend of the pod, the Tim Traveler, a great YouTuber. You should watch his his travel videos. He’s basically the sweeper but non- football. And uh he covered the 2025 World Tram Driver Championships in Vienna. 26 cities competing for glory across eight disciplines that range from a stopandgo challenge to tram bowling. So there was all sorts of stuff to enjoy and the crowds really really turned up in numbers and got behind this and actually at one point you could not get near the front to see to see the actual the live event. People were climbing onto lamp posts to see over the crowd. It was like Argentina’s World Cup celebration. People clinging on to lampost to see the trams. It was a incredible occasion. It just sounds amazing. But so is it one it’s like there’s one team. There’s team Austria or is it like different categories? Like how does this work? Yeah, there’s there’s one team per city except for Germany whose team was split across Berlin and Leipz I think. Um but yeah, the Polish team was streets ahead. They were from Pausnan. So we all thought they were going to win. Yeah. And then they seeded pole position and then Austria stole in on the so in like a is it like a decathlon like you get points for each event and it adds up to a leaderboard. So what was the final event? What was the one that that won it? Oh, it didn’t quite work like that. You each got like a six minute run and then so you did all eight things at once and then your second driver went in the second half of the event. But yeah, absolutely fantastic. Tim will be uploading a video about that in a couple of weeks. I I had a fantastic time at the uh the World Tram driver championships. He said to me, “Shall I apply for a media accredititation for you?” I thought I might be stretching it a little bit far. Well, yeah, the road sweeper. I don’t know. Yeah, we might struggle. Yeah. Um but yeah, plenty going on in Austria at the moment. Can of course find out more about all of this kind of stuff on our sister show the Austrian football podcast the other Bundesliga which I co-host with producer Tom and Simon Clark. So do tune in to that. We’re going to move across now to Kosovo Paul because Kosovo have a world title. They are they’re the unofficial world champions. Um which they won by beating Sweden quite unexpectedly. Um they beat them 2-0 in this window in Christina. Um, I think we mentioned the unofficial world championship before, but a lot of people may not know how this works. Basically, as I understand it, at some point someone had a lot of time on their hands, went back to the very first international match, England versus Scotland in 1872 and then carried on as if it was a boxing belt. So, if you win that game, you keep the title until someone beats you and then they take the title until someone beats them. and they’d worked it out at the time I think all the way through to somewhere in the sort of around 2015 or 16 and it’s just carried on from then isn’t it? Yes, it has. Yeah. And it’s had some interesting winners in recent times because um Argentina held it coincidentally at the time that they won the World Cup. Then I think it transferred to Uruguay then across to Africa. Now it’s moved into to Europe and yeah as you say Kosovo took it from Sweden. So now I think the the newest FIFA member state perhaps I’m not entirely sure on that but Kosovo joining in 2016 I think that makes them the newest are currently the the unofficial football world champions and they have joined a list of countries who have won at least one unofficial world football championship match along with Australia, Kurissau, Israel, Sierra Leone, South Korea, Turkey and Venezuela. What a group. It’s brilliant, isn’t it? I re I really love this as an idea. I I love the random nature because somewhere in my mindset, I I thought, wouldn’t this just stick with a really big nation and that would be it? It would just be stuck. But it’s true that no one really stays unbeaten for that long, do they? And then obviously once it goes somewhere, it keeps moving around. But it is interesting that that it can go to to countries that aren’t necessarily your obvious choices. Yeah, I think it does get like stuck in a region for a while because obviously football’s international football’s broken down into confederations and only if there’s a kind of wider tournament or a an intercontinental friendly do you then get, you know, the chance for that to move to another continent. But at the moment it is in Europe. Kosovo will have the chance to defend that title when they take on Slovenia in their next World Cup qualification match in October 2025. This was not the only thing that we recently posted about on social media to do with Kosovo. We also posted about the seven banned matchups in UEFA football. And this got a lot of reaction unsurprisingly. I think it is the most viral social media post the sweeper has ever done. It’s got over 2 million impressions, 70,000 likes, plenty of shares, and oh, a hell of a lot of comments. So, we we thought that we would take a very brief um overview and and have a look at what those band clashes are and what would happen if those teams actually got through to a knockout phase and could theoretically face each other. So, a lot of people will know this already. I think we’ve talked about it before, but there are seven band matchups in UEFA and they are Spain, Gibralta, Armenia Aabaijan, Kosovo, Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia, and Herzgo, Kosovo, Russia, Ukraine, Russia, and Ukraine Bellarus. Now, with Russia being suspended from UEFA at the moment, only five of those seven are even on the cards. But that’s quite a lot of banned clashes, which is something that other continents don’t necessarily seem to have. And when we posted about this on social media, one of the key questions we had, well, is what would happen if they then got two of these banned nations got through to a a knockout phase? Would they be able to face each other? And the short answer is it’s not really being tested because quite a few of these countries like Kosovo only joined FIFA in 2016. I think Gibralta was was only a few years before that. And so what’s really happened is that none of these countries have actually faced each other very much. But theoretically it is possible because they are only protected from facing each other during a group draw which means if they did get through perhaps they would then try and keep say Serbia and Kosovo apart in an initial bracket but then theoretically they would have to face each other at some point and they would be allowed to play then. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think it’s all about controlling the controllables, isn’t it? It’s about making sure these ties, where possible, don’t happen. But once you get into the uncontrollable, which is a a major tournament, it would be really weird if they started trying to actively keep two teams apart, it would it would sort of ruin the integrity of the competition, I think. So, um, the other thing that I think maybe is a factor is that once you’re into a major tournament, it’s being hosted on neutral territory anyway. I think what they’re trying to avoid is for example like Kosovo showing up in Bosnia and Herz the governor and all that would come with that. Whereas if you’re in a completely separate part of the world there’s probably a lot less chance of violence and of of these problems manifesting. But it is really interesting that it’s never been tested. I guess it’s partly just the nature of the teams we’re talking about. Like very few of them actually are teams that have qualified for tournaments. Uh only really Ukraine and Russia. uh and Spain out of that list we’ve given and I suppose Serbia but yeah it’s Kosovo that haven’t really ever qualified for anything uh any major tournament and Kosovo involved in three of those banned uh seven pairings. On another geopolitical note, I thought I’d give a quick mention to Football Meets Data. They’re a really great Twitter and Instagram account and they posted a graphic which I found very interesting. They have a simulator to predict which countries are going to qualify for the World Cup. And looking at their graphic was almost like looking at a map of Europe back during the Cold War when the Iron Curtain existed because with a couple of exceptions being Croatia um projected to qualify and um Italy and some of the home nations not projected to qualify. It was like looking at an iron curtain map. All of Western Europe projected to qualify for the World Cup. All of Eastern Europe apart from Croatia projected not to qualify. That’s really interesting. That is very interesting. Uh I love, by the way, I love these projection things. I love when they work out the percentage chance of a nation qualifying. I just always imagine the manager getting home and sort of saying, you know, we still got the positives here. Oh, with 3.1% chance of qualifying. Yeah, I don’t know how that works to be honest. No, I I they must I suppose they work out the odds of you know the same way the bookmakers can make odds for games. I suppose they’re looking at the odds of those results and then the odds of the other results that are necessary for a team to qualify and then they they can work it out. I I find that really interesting. I don’t know if that’s coincidence or whether it’s that Western Europe is um has advantages over Eastern Europe. Um I’m trying to think if there are any nations that would necessarily stand out as being surprising here, but you know there are a lot of Eastern European nations that are not massively having their best time as well. Well, I think it reflects a general trend in football because if you look at like the Champions League lineup now, okay, you’ve got Carabag, you have Kai, but for the vast majority of of of the sort of the map, it’s all it’s all clubs in Western Europe or Central Europe. So, I think it’s just that the sort of direction football is moving. A lot of the the money and success is concentrated in in Western Europe at the moment. We’ve got one more thing we wanted to talk about in part one for Europool. Muldova. What happened when Muldova played against Norway? Well, they somehow managed to lose 11-1. And I wonder if this is one of those ones. Do you remember when um when England lost to USA at that World Cup? Was it 1950? And at the time, England English people were so arrogant that when they saw it written in the newspaper, they thought it was a misprint and that England had 110 won or something, you know? It was like there’s this kind of assumption that they must be wrong. I wonder if anyone in Muldova thought this was one all. Yeah. I mean it is the biggest European World Cup qualifying uh victory or margin of victory this century is massive. I think the only bigger World Cup qualifying win in Europe was back in 1969 when Germany beat Cyprus 12-nil. I think that tells you everything you need to know. And Elling Holland reportedly apologizing to the Muldova goalkeeper Christian Avam. Yeah, apparently every time because they were obviously they wanted to rack up the goals. Norway their goal difference now is so superior to Italy’s that it has made a huge difference on that group. It’s it’s more or less made Italy’s task impossible to depose Norway. So every time they scored they they were running to get the ball out the net because they thought they could get more which is something you don’t usually do. You know the the feeling of being seven or eight goals ahead and you’re still running to get the ball out the net. Um and I think Holland just felt bad apparently. He he was go going to the goalkeeper and saying, “It’s not your fault, mate. I’m so sorry. It’s not your fault.” You just think, “God, what an awful thing to hear.” It feels like feels like what you’d say if you’re scoring past like your little brother or something. It feels I know he was doing it to be a nice guy, but it almost feels vaguely sort of insulting to to have someone apologize for scoring past you. Yeah. I wrote on Twitter at fulltime that I I was looking for a pun that would suitably reflect how disastrous a night this was for Moldova, but I couldn’t come up with it spontaneously because it was something that needed to be mold over. And uh yeah, I mean I I don’t expect anything else of you. But we did get a far superior comment from a Twitter follower who said they think it’s mowled over. It is now. Oh yeah. No, fair enough. and it is mowled over for the boss. Um it looked for a while like Sergey Klashenko might hold on. Um he would love to really have gone to ground and just hidden until everyone forgot the result, but no. Um he he resigned after that one. Um but yeah, I mean the the weird thing is Moldova for context like this is so surprising really because they’ve not been bad. I know they’ve had some times where they’ve really not been great, but actually they only lost two of their 10 games in 2024. Um they’re not the kind of team you expect to lose by this this margin. It was a real freak event. I think I don’t I don’t expect to see another one of these, but um yeah, it was a bit of a moment where you saw that, you know, they were already nine and he thought, “Oh, no.” Yeah, this looks bad. Quick piece of trivia, Paul, before we move on to the remaining headlines from Europe. Um what is the record margin of victory for a World Cup qualifier? It’s got to be It’s still got to be Australia 31 American tomorrow nil, hasn’t it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which which change I don’t know if that directly, but it I think that sort of changed the whole way qualifying was done in in the region. And it it also fed into this thing that got Australia to leave OFC, I think, because it was a sense of this just isn’t doing anyone any good. And that thing of Archie Thompson scoring 13 goals in that game as well, getting that quadruple hat-tick. Yeah, massive. That did just feel mean cuz I don’t think they did need the goal difference that time. Yeah. And do you know when Australia scored 31 goals that day? Do you know whose record they broke? Ooh, no. Oh, hadn’t Australia already smashed someone in the groups? And yes, two days earlier they beat Tonga 22 nil. So that record stood for two days. That’s amazing. That’s a little bit like the um you know the the game between our bro and Bon Accord that was for a long time the biggest ever score the Scottish game it was 36- nil on that same day another game was 35- nil. Ah, there’s a little bit. You feel well gutted if that was you, wouldn’t you? Completely and a little side note to the American similar defeat. I didn’t know this until recently. Um, one of the reasons it was so high is because FIFA just brought in a rule that all the American silo players had to have a passport um to to play for them. And actually, most of the squad just didn’t have the right passport documentation. So, they ended up having to bring in just a load of just young guys who had passports. It was like a fraction of the squad they’ve been training for the game with. So like that 31 there was always held up as a sort of god look how bad American Samo were, but actually they were playing with almost none of their first choice players. Okay, a quick mention for Slovakia, Paul, because uh they beat Germany competitively for the first time ever. Um, pretty amazing. We’ve talked about their coach before, Franchesco Kzona. He once resigned as boss of Tuscan amateur team in order to focus on his job as a coffee dealer. Now he’s potentially on the cusp of a World Cup with Slovakia. Yeah. Or is he going to just give it all up and make the world’s best coffee? Yeah. Who knows? Who knows? What what a result that was though. Yeah. Um I think to some extent, especially in in the UK, that that result a little bit slipped under the radar. It was an amazing win for Slovakia. More than that, I think it was it was really only told as a look how bad this result is for Germany, which which it is, but that is um it’s quite something and I really yeah, I’m quite excited by the path Slovakia are on. Finally, Iceland beat Azabaijan 5-nil in Rekuik. This was their biggest ever victory against a non-microate opponent. Um and then they they went ahead in France, but uh ultimately succumbed to a a 2-1 defeat. This is the Icelandic revival, I guess, because they became the smallest ever country by population to qualify for a World Cup in 2018. Then they had a bit of a dip. Sort of disappeared off the radar for a few years. Are Iceland back, Paul? They’re back. They’re backly. Um, yeah. And the only small caveat is Aabaijan have been dreadful and that was that was the end of Fernando Santos uh as head coach. It really just it had been pretty poor from Azaijan. They are better than that. But um yeah, nice to see Iceland back firing again. And um let’s Baku firing. Baku firing. Yes. Set me up for that, Paul. Um on the topic of Icelandic football, before we round off part one, we’ve got a shirt to give away. Paul, an Icelandic football shirt. Tell us about it. Yeah, we do. Um I saw this shirt and I have to say it’s just it’s so striking and so beautiful. It’s made by our friends at Sangalo. So if you don’t know Sangalo, they make some really interesting, exciting shirts, but they make them in conjunction with the clubs that they represent and then obviously the money goes back to help those clubs and those clubs are often dotted around the world in places where they may not be selling a lot of shirts. So it does a load of good for them sort of raising their profile, bringing in some revenue. Um, this shirt is the best foot club in Iceland. um who I am going to try and pronounce uh and always apologies to Icelandic people and their culture. Um Isbunin Football Football Club is buunin foot club. That’s what I’m going to go with. The shirt it’s just beautiful. It’s got a um kind of roaring polar bear uh on an ice cap and then the kind of northern lights patterning. And there are three color schemes. A sort of a blue one, a red one, and a green one. Honestly, they are just stunning shirts and I really wanted us to give one away partly just so we could also flag up the work Sangalo are doing because they they are doing some brilliant work. That was by far and away your best ever shirt description. We we we will have a photo for the video viewers, but if you’ve if you’ve been listening to the audio version of this podcast, Paul has absolutely nailed that. I feel like you’re you must have been training. Oh, but Lee, I I I’ve got I love to say I’ve been training, but I think it’s just that the first time I ever had to give a description, I was so bad. I think I just garbled. It just blew or something like that. And ever since there’s been this impression that I’m unable to describe items. Well, for a chance to win that, you just have to join us on Patreon at patreon.com/sweperpod. Everyone is automatically entered into that draw. Will then pick a winner. Um, we’ve also got plenty of content coming out on the Patreon at the moment. bonus podcast and the like. We’ve had a lot of people signing up on the annual membership as well. So, thank you so so much for your support. You get 10% off if you sign up annually. That will do for part one. Quick break from us now and then we’ll be back to round up everything from the Americas to Oania in part two. [Music] Welcome back to part two of the sweeper in which we’ll be rounding up the rest of the continents with the exception of Africa. Now you might be thinking Cape Verde are about to become the second smallest country to ever reach a World Cup. They recruit players on LinkedIn. You have to talk about them. And you would be right, but we’re pretty confident Cape Verde are going to make it now. And so we will tell their full story and hear from their camp if and when they do in October. For now though, let’s start the round up with the Americas. And Paul, I think probably one of the standouts from the September window was Surinam. They’re currently top of their Conquer Calf World Cup qualifying group. Yeah. And um the the the biggest win, probably the most unlikely was this El Salvador win to win away against El Salvador. Um, not only are El Salvador comfortably rate ranked higher than them in the FIFA rankings, um, it’s also a really hard place to go, you know, as you’d expect. It’s a passionate, loud, difficult atmosphere. Um, so yeah, something is really cooking in in Surinam. I was really interested as to why Surinam are actually doing a lot better now. And it seems like they’ve done something concrete. They have introduced back in 2019 a sports passport initiative enabling players of dual nationality to represent the team. Now Surinam is a former Dutch colony but previously players with dual Dutch Surinamese nationality were not allowed to represent the team. that has now changed and as you can see it’s had a major impact on the Surinamese squad with 23 of the 26 players in September having dual nationality primarily Surinamese and Dutch and you so you can see how that is um how that is going to benefit the team and they also seem to have quite a sort of Dutch DNA to their style of play now if we’re sort of harking back to the days of total football they completed 421 passes the way to El Salvador and they have a have a Dutch coach as well. I think they’re they’re really benefiting from this Dutch influence. Yeah. And it’s interesting because I feel like this is a bit of a theme across the world this but um a lot of nations now are embracing players of heritage who often are dual nationality because they’ve grown up somewhere else. You know, they they often maybe haven’t even been to the the country they’re representing, but it’s a very big part of their their kind of upbringing, their roots. And there’s always been a tension between that and the the the drive to make sure domestic and homegrown leagues are are progressing. And I I feel like there’s been a shift for several nations. I think one of the ones that comes to my mind is Sri Lanka who are suddenly very much turning to heritage players. Often the results are much much better. The only downside is whether that does cause a tension with the domestic league where suddenly players feel like they’re just not going to get an opportunity. I think another thing that they’re benefiting from at the moment is the automatic qualification of the three co-hosts for this tournament because the USA, Canada, and Mexico would usually be the strongest opponents in the Conquer CF region. They’re all at the tournament automatically. And because it’s a 48 team World Cup this time, too, that means there’s more qualification spots available. Three automatic spots excluding those aforementioned co-hosts, and two intercontinental spots, too. Do we think Surinam could do it or is it just a a moment in time where they’re topping the group? No, I think I think it’s very much a possibility. Um, and as you say, it’s opened the door to countries who perhaps wouldn’t have have thought there was a way through. So, I’d also extend that to Kurissau, even though Jamaica have taken charge of that group. Kurissau very much in the mix there. Um, Honduras had a great start to qualification. They’re they’re looking well set. Haiti could could challenge. You know, it it’s very exciting. This this is the side product of this this hosting combination is it has made Conquer Cafe for me one of the most exciting regions to to focus on. This opening it up to these newcomers. A big shout out to Kurasau as well for extending uh Dick Advocat’s contract prompting the brilliant social media graphic of Dick Extends from the Kurissell football account. That that that got me for quite some time. That did I enjoyed that. Um, off to South America next pool. Bolivia turning to altitude once again. Yeah, and um, I’ve got to say I felt very sorry for Venezuela in this. So, Venezuela, we’ve focused on before being the only combo country that have never reached a World Cup finals. They got off to a great start in this qualification, but the wheels just slowly sort of came off and by the time we reached the last group games, there’s almost a feeling of inevitability to their their demise. Um, even though you would have thought the one thing that was least likely was Brazil being turned over by Bolivia and as you’ve alluded to, Lee, it was kind of this this this unique trick that Bolivia can can turn. It’s somewhere between it’s not really gamesmanship. It’s just taking advantage of your natural natural advantages, I suppose. But this thing of playing at an altitude that suddenly takes away any advantage the Wayside might have skill-wise. and and they seem to be able to beat almost anyone. Um really I mean I think this is strategically very sensible because at the beginning of this qualification campaign they were playing at the Estadio Hernando Celles which is 3,637 m above sea level. Now, that’s already really high, but their results at home, which they traditionally rely on, weren’t great. And they then decided to switch to the Estadio Elto, which is the highest altitude international football stadium in the world, 4,088 m above sea level. Since then, 14, drawn two, and as you say, turned over Brazil 1 nil. It’s working. Yeah, it’s working. And um there were a few other things. I mean, the the Brazil Brazil were already qualified. Brazil had very little play for. I bet they really didn’t want to make that trip at all. Really interesting note is that Brazil ended up finishing fifth. So in a normal in normal times before the expansion of this World Cup, you know, when back in the days of 32 team, um Brazil would be struggling to qualify at all. So it it doesn’t reflect well on Brazil this qualification campaign. Um but but the for me it’s the difference between Bolivia’s home and away form. It does sort of flag how big an impact this is. They barely win a game away from home, do they really? Yeah. And that makes me wonder cuz now they are going through to this intercontinental playoff which will be held in Mexico. And I wonder if they’ve already been looking at the map to try and work out what the highest altitude venues are at the 2026 World Cup. Um it is Mexico City in case you’re wondering, but the Interconfederation playoffs are being held at the other two Mexican venues. Guadalajara, 1550 m and Mterrey only 540 m. That’s that’s not the height they want to be playing at, is it? But but on the other hand, um it’s all there to play for in this Intercontinental Bluff. You you’d sort of think Conn’s representative would expect to be one of the stronger in this because you got the two two Conquer Calf teams, one from Africa, one from Asia, and then we know it’s New Calonia coming in from Oania. I I think you’d probably think given that Bolivia have been playing very strong opposition in qualification that they may actually already have the advantage in this um altitude aside. It’s going to be a fascinating thing. Anyway, I can’t wait to see these games. It’s it’s everything we love. You know, teams coming from all these different um confederations and teams that are maybe not usually in the mix for qualification meeting with these huge games. I think I can speak for both of us when I say that we are New Calonia all the way, aren’t we, in the Intercontinental Playoffs. It would be amazing to see an overseas territory at the tournament. That’s only ever happened once before in uh in World Cup history. That was the Dutch East Indies pool in 1938. Now Indonesia, of course, but back then. Yes. Back then. Yes. And that’s still their only appearance at a World Cup, isn’t it? I think so. Indonesia as it stands. Yeah. That’s their only appearance. No, we we’ll be fully fully on board with New Calonia. Um interesting to see where that squad comes from. I believe a lot of them are Europeanbased. Um but I don’t know if that’s better coming from Europe or better coming from Oania. Who have New Calonia announced a friendly against Paul in the next international window on the 8th of October? Gibralta. Gibralta. And it feels very much like this is something we would have done. Yeah, they are playing at the Europa Point Stadium. This is at the tip of the Gibralarian Peninsula with a lovely view of Africa in the distance on the 8th of October. It’s not not the shortest distance, is it Paul, to to organize a friendly for? 17 and a half thousand km seems like a long way to go. It it does. And um New Calonia don’t tend to play a lot of friendlies and that’s maybe why is, you know, the distances are huge. Oania teams generally struggle to play as many friendlies because it’s just so hard to get anywhere in that region. But I do think when you look at their squad list, I feel like a large proportion of the squad are actually playing in lower league French um divisions. So I I would suspect a Europeanbased squad would would make this a lot more of a logical trip. Um in which case it’s almost interesting that New Calonia haven’t been playing more games in Europe using players from the French leagues. So, I don’t know whether they’ll send some from New Calonia who make the massive trip and some who will come just from France or or whether they’ll just use a French-based squad. I was thinking we should go to this until the aforementioned amateur nations cup was was organized at the very same time, but I would love to go to this friendly. Yeah, it looks amazing, doesn’t it? as you say, something about the um the view, the fact it’s one of the most stunning sort of locations and just the weirdness of seeing New Calonia rocking up to a game in in the European continent. Um I was really tempted. I started looking at flights and then as you say, it’s complicated by this amateur cup that’s arrived on your doorstep. Yeah, I think I’ll probably go to that to be honest, but I would would love to be going back to Jibralta. Uh elsewhere in world football in September in Asia, Usuzbekistan won what? Yeah, that’s what a lot of people have been saying. They won more. This one slipped under the radar. They um they won the Kafa Nation Cup, which is Central Asian Nations Cup, right? Um which uh I think has only been there’s only been two of them. This is the second edition of the tournament, so it it’s kind of we’re forgiven for not necessarily having our eyes on this. Um, it sounded like it was a pretty hard slog of a tournament for them. I think they had to dig pretty deep to win it. Um, but but it’s, you know, nice for them to win a trophy. This is only their second ever trophy. Yeah. Yeah. I think they won the Asian Games back in the ‘ 90s, but this is this is a part of a recent resurgence by the USB national team who have qualified for their first ever World Cup in 2026, one of the already confirmed debutants. And now they have won this tournament. And by no means was it easy opposition by the way because Iran were their opponents in the final whom they lost to in the last edition of this CFA Nations Cup. They beat them thanks to a 120th minute goal to end yeah what was a 13-year winless run against Iran. So things are looking pretty good for us at the moment, aren’t they? They really are. They really are. And um yeah, as you say, Iran are absolutely no pushovers. They are a very tough team to beat. So um it was an intriguing competition this um and yeah exciting times forbakistan. Nepal Paul um I wasn’t expecting to talk about Nepal as part of our international roundup today. Um but their their friendly with Bangladesh was cancelled due to civil unrest. You may have seen on the news that youthled demonstrations have broken out in Kathmandu and other parts of Nepal over government corruption and social media censorship. So Nepal’s friendly with Bangladesh was canceled. But the reason I actually bring this up was just a very funny anecdote that happened on a recent visit back home for me. So I was sitting on the sofa with my mom and she said to me, “Have you got any travel plans for the next few months?” Now I’m thinking of going to Nepal because my girlfriend Sonia is doing her master’s thesis in Kathmandu in November. So I saw I had a look for the football fixtures of course as you do and I saw that Nepal have a game against Malaysia in November. So I thought fantastic I can go there and see some Nepalese football. And um so I was sitting on the sofa with my mom. She said what are your travel plans for the next few months? And I said oh I’m thinking about going to Nepal in November. and the news was on in the background and within two seconds of her saying that the news reader announced um protesters have set fire to the Nepalese parliament and I just turned to my mom and said maybe not then the timing unbelievable incredible timing there’s actually um I don’t know if you’ve seen it but there’s this amazing story that there was a vlogger a travel vlogger was out in Nepal at the time was just supposed to be there on a kind of routine trip you typical kind of travel vlogs and has ended up documenting this entire process of like the overthrow of the government and has become almost like a kind of figurehead for this youth movement that they’re like they want to make him some sort of honorary role because he’s been right in the middle of them the whole time sort of pointing his camera looking completely baffled by what’s going on. I guess that’s like his equivalent of when San Marino won for us. Yeah, except we saw that at least we saw that coming a little bit. I mean, imagine just pitching up and be like, “Right, is this what you guys normally get up to?” Or um, and the other thing is they um I think this is true. This young Gen Z movement apparently elected who they were going to make the new prime minister over Discord. Um, I will point out that if you join our Patreon, go on our Discord, we don’t have the option either to appoint Nepal’s next leader or to take one of us out and put you in. But we but we do have cracking content, so it it is worth it. Um, yeah, but no no no ability to elect world leaders unfortunately. Finally today, Paul, Northern Marana Islands, they had uh the under23s had a bit of a David versus Goliath clash with with with whom? With China. So, this was Yeah, the the under 23 is playing against China. I I can’t think of a bigger disparity that that takes place in population in world football. So, Northern Marana Islands have 44,000 inhabitants. China has about 1.4 billion. I don’t know if there’s a a bigger sort of David versus Goliath battle than that in in world football. Uh it it went with uh Goliath. Goliath crushed David sadly on this occasion. It was I think it was 10 nil. But um but yeah, again great the Northern Mariana Islands are competing on that stage. Um they are actually still not a full FIFA member. I think they’re in the process of trying to get that status. So, they are um allowed to play in kind of regional tournaments. They’re not allowed to qualify for the World Cup. Um I really would love to see them in World Cup qualifiers soon. I did a bit of digging, of course, and uh I found out that there is actually one bigger population disparity. If Northern Maran Islands played in an AFC game against India, it would be 44,000 versus 1.46 billion, whereas China is 1.4 billion. Yes, of course, cuz India’s just overtaken China relatively recently, hasn’t it? In population. I guess we’re talking about fixtures within confederations because they will happen, right? Because there will be bigger disparities. I think Monserat is the smallest by population, you know, on island, isn’t it? Um, of the FIFA members. So, say Monzerat were to play China, uh, that would be even bigger because I think the on island population is only about 5,000. But I guess we’re looking at fixtures that that are more likely to happen because they’re within Confederation. There is apparently 32,000 Chinese people for every one citizen of the Northern Marana Islands. So, some disparity, but as you say, great. They’re taking part. That was a Was that an an under 23 Asian Cup qualifier? Yeah. Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. And um final mention of Northern Ariana because I always try and drop it in. They’re the ones who have a club called Latte FC. So, I always think about them whenever I’m ordering a coffee. I’m like, Northern Ariana Horizons have a team called Latte FC. Surely they have to appoint Franchesco Kza when it doesn’t, you know, when he leaves Slovakia. Yeah. The former coffee. Neither there or Ethiopian coffee FC. I suppose. Yeah. I suppose the the logical choices of course. Um we were going to do a little bit about the um African Champions League which is starting very soon. We didn’t have time once we’d already prepared the full agenda for today. But where can you get our full lowdown on the CF Champions League, the AFC Champions League, and some other continental club competitions, Paul? That’s going to be on our Patreon on our bonus podcast. So, if you join our Patreon, you get a podcast on the weeks we don’t have a main podcast. So, effectively, you get every week a podcast. Um, and it’s yeah, going to be going to be a really fun one, that one actually. Um, as Lee says, it didn’t fit into this one, but there is so much good stuff on that pod. So, if you do join our Patreon, that’ll be coming your way next week. Yeah, I was doing some digging just last night on the two Wikipedia red links that are in the calf champions league. One from South Sudan and one from Equatorial Guinea. And I found out some nice stuff about them. So, all of that coming up on the next bonus podcast. But for now, thank you for listening and we will see you either for said bonus podcast on Wednesday the 24th of September or we’ll see you at the beginning of October for another main podcast on Wednesday the 1st of October. [Music]
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Keep podcasting until the end of time boys 😂🎉
Does Paul have a Lions Gibraltar shirt in the wall?