🚨 NEW EPISODE OUT NOW ON PATREON 🚨 'The Øresund Bridge derby, haircut breaks in Nuuk & Colombia’s calendar footballer' 🔗 patreon.com/sweeperpod

🇬🇱👑 B-67 are the 2025 Greenlandic football champions after beating fellow Nuuk side IT-79 2-1 to win the tournament for the 16th time! Vuvuzelas sounded & enthusiastic spectators perched on rocks overlooking the pitch to watch the final of the world's shortest football season!

🇨🇭⛴️ Landlocked Switzerland is set for an unusual away day when the Promotion League, the country's third tier, gets under way today. The fans of FC Schaffhausen have organised a boat to take them down the Rhine for their game against Kreuzlingen on the shores of Lake Constance.

🇹🇻🏝️ The Pacific island of Tuvalu, one of only two OFC Associate Members, lacks two major criteria required for FIFA membership. It does not have a stadium with a capacity of at least 3000 & it does not have the necessary number of full-service hotels - the island has only one!

🇵🇹🏝️ Santa Clara - based 1,500km from Portugal's capital Lisbon in the mid-Atlantic - have come from behind to beat Croats Varaždin! If they can navigate two more qualifying rounds, the Azores will be the westernmost point to ever host European group/league phase football!

🇨🇳🏙️ Imagine that: a 32-million person megacity in China without a top-flight football club. But that could all be about to change...

🇵🇼 What sets the Pacific island nation of Palau apart from every other footballing country on earth?

📍 Göreme, Türkiye 🇹🇷

🇬🇪 Spaeri were only founded in 2017 by Georgia's Special State Protection Service & have since gone from the fifth tier to national cup winners. Their Spaeri-tale continues tonight as the second-tier Tbilisi team make their European debut in Vienna in the UEFA Conference League.

🎉 OUR FIRST-EVER 10,000 LISTENER EPISODE! 🎉 When we started out with the podcast in 2023, our goal was to reach 🔟,0️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ listeners! Two & half years later, our Greenland episode with Nick Miller has hit that target 🎯✅ Thanks to all our amazing listeners & supporters! 🤩

🇻🇦 Well that's another lifelong football dream dashed. Back to the drawing board! 😃

🇦🇺🏆 Insane cup result in Australia, where fourth-division Nunawading City have beaten second-tier Darwin Olympic 9-0 in the last 32. Based in the Melbourne suburbs, Nunawading City are the only fourth-tier team still in the cup & are only one point off the bottom in the league!

🇳🇴 A football match in the Arctic Circle that ends at midnight, you say? Count us in!

🇪🇸📈 Insane story in Spain, where Atlètic Lleida have risen through the Catalan regional ranks to reach the fourth national division. But 3 of their 4 promotions have been administrative rather than sporting, by reaching agreements, paying fees or benefiting from restructuring.

📍 Istanbul 🇹🇷 No non-capital city in Europe has more top-flight football clubs than Istanbul, which is home to seven Süper Lig teams. The only one on the Asian side is Fenerbahçe. Time to head over there & see if we can track down José Mourinho!

🇲🇺 It's fair to say the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius has some incredible football club names! Is there a better selection anywhere else in the world?!

🇧🇦 Imagine being so dominant domestically that you hold the Guinness World Record for most consecutive titles but you simply cannot compete in Europe...

🇫🇴 European football returns to Klaksvík tonight. What a place! 🤩

👴 Who else would have enjoyed seeing this?

🇵🇹🏝️ Primeira Liga club Santa Clara from the Azores are bringing UEFA competition football to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean this summer. What challenges do they face? And could they break the all-time European away day record? Here are 10 facts you need to know. THREAD 🧵

🇵🇱 It is amazing to think that this tiny village in southern Poland (yes, that's all of it!) will host Ekstraklasa football again this season! Nieciecza, home to Bruk-Bet Termalica, has a population of around 750, making it one of the smallest places with a top-tier club ever!

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 The Shetland Isles, a Scottish archipelago in the North Sea, are exploring the construction of undersea tunnels like in the Faroe Islands. What would that mean for football teams, fans and island life in general? And what is the sport like in this isolated outpost? 🧵 THREAD

🇲🇺 LaCure Waves claimed their first-ever Mauritian Cup title this season - but to say it wasn't plain-sailing would be an understatement!

This is content worthy of a Club World Cup winners medal!

🇫🇮 In the quarter-finals of the 2025 Finnish Cup, HJK Helsinki claimed a comfortable "away" victory...against their own reserves. It begs the question: how often does a club play against or get surpassed by their own reserves in football? Here are 10 notable examples. THREAD 🧵

🇨🇳🤖 China has held the first fully automated AI robot football tournament in Beijing and let's just say it could be a while before they replace human footballers... 😅

🇫🇮 Inter Turku must be a great place to be right now! 📈 First team: Top of the Veikkausliiga (top flight) Reserve team: Top of the Ykkonen (third tier)

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏝️ The 2025 Island Games - a biennial multi-sports event, which includes football, for islands - gets under way in Orkney today. The number of participants in the men's football was cut down from 16 to 12 due to the shortage of available accommodation on the Scottish islands.

📈 Clubs from all of Europe’s participating micro-states/minnow nations won this week: 🇦🇩 Atlètic d'Escaldes, FC Santa Coloma ✅✅ 🇫🇴 KÍ Klaksvík, NSI Runavík ✅✅ 🇲🇹 Birkirkara, Floriana ✅✅ 🇸🇲 Tre Fiori ✅

📺 NEW VIDEO PODCAST 📺 Europe: 🇻🇦 The birth of Rayo Vaticano 🇳🇴 Tromsø's 'Midnight Match' 🇧🇦 SFK 2000's cross-border plans 🆚 A long-awaited Cold War clash Rest of the world: 🇨🇳 Beijing's AI robot tournament 🇵🇼 The only country with no FA 🇲🇷 The cup-winners without a keeper 🔗 Link to listen in bio

🇦🇩 FC Andorra, who are owned by Barcelona legend Gerard Pique, play in the Spanish pyramid & have just been promoted to the second tier. But why don't they play in Andorra's league? And how did they once achieve a double-promotion? Here are 10 facts you need to know. THREAD 🧵

🇪🇺 The qualifying rounds for the UEFA club competitions start tomorrow - only 38 days after the 2024/25 Champions League final. Who are the participants? What are their back stories? Join us for a whistlestop trip to 10 lesser-known corners of the European continent. THREAD 🧵

🆚 We're calling for a fixture between the northernmost and southernmost top-flight football clubs in the world!* ⬆️🇳🇴 Tromsø ⬇️🇳🇿 Dunedin City Royals *FIFA nations only

🆚 Who agrees? Or do you think there is a more exciting tie in the qualifying rounds of the European club competitions this summer?

🇱🇻📉 Mark Zuckerberg will be devastated to see his team bottom of the table in Latvia's top flight...

🇬🇩 "QPR are travelling to paradise today!" "Oh, are they headed somewhere exotic in pre-season?" "No, I mean in the Grenada Premier Division..."

🇯🇵 It's a massive day in Japan as the two Yokohama clubs in the J1 League go head-to-head in a critical relegation six-pointer! Yokohama F Marinos are currently bottom & on track for an historic relegation: they are one of only two clubs to have played in every J-League season.

🇵🇹🏝️ Which club are you most excited to follow in the UEFA club competition qualifying rounds, which get under way next week?

How do you become an international football team? What criteria do you need to meet? What obstacles can stand in your way? We invited @nickmiller79.bsky.social from The Athletic onto the pod to tell us all about the long road to becoming a recognised international side.

👑 Football clubs that play in the leagues of other UN / FIFA-recognised countries are relatively rare. Those that become champions are even rarer. From west to east, here are eight clubs from five continents that have won the league title outside their own borders. THREAD 🧵

📺 The Sweeper Podcast has a YouTube channel! Please subscribe to us there to watch full video podcast episodes and short explainer videos ℹ️ 🔗 bit.ly/SweeperYouTube

Incredible scenes as Crystal Palace beat Manchester City in the English FA Cup final & win their first major trophy. They are the third top-tier club in Europe to win their first major trophy (league or primary cup) this season, after Wolfsberg (AUT) & Dungannon Swifts (NIR).

🇷🇴 Amazing! The players of FCSB have appeared on the pitch prior to their final home game of the season v. Universitatea Craiova in style! They are dressed as film/TV/video game characters & superheroes to celebrate winning the Romanian title, which they have already wrapped up!

🇫🇮⛴️ IFK Mariehamn, who are based in the Swedish-speaking Åland islands, face their biggest away trip of the Finnish Veikkausliiga season today. To get to Oulu, the squad must take a 5.5 hour ferry before embarking upon an eight-hour bus journey - a total distance of over 800km.

✍️ NEW BLOG POST ✍️ 🏆 Fenix Trophy - the non-league Champions League 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Triumph for Caledonian Braves in 2025 👨 The competition's creator: Leo Aleotti ✈️ Beer, Mr. Blobby and budget airlines ⁉️ The mystery behind the name Live now on Patreon ⬇️ 🔗 bit.ly/FenixTrophyBlog

🇧🇪 Our latest groundhop was to Belgium, where we... ⚽️ ...saw three games in four days 👮 ...almost got caught up in a riot 🫏 ...saw a donkey parading a trophy 🐦...posed with mascots at the cup final 🍺 ...sampled the beautiful beer Hear the full story ⬇️ 🍎 bit.ly/AppleSweeper 🟢 bit.ly/SpotifySweeper

🇲🇩🏟️ The Sheriff Sports Complex, the Transnistrian home of Sheriff Tiraspol, houses three stadiums: a modern arena, a secondary pitch & an indoor hall. The complex was completed at a cost of around £150 million - an insane amount of money for Moldova, Europe's poorest country.

🎙️ NEW EPISODE 🎙️ 🇧🇪 Riots & donkeys in Belgium 🇳🇴 Fish & reindeer ticket trades in Norway 🇬🇧 Northern Ireland's burger king cup winners 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Scotland's Champions League inspiration 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 VAR in the Welsh seventh tier Listen ⬇️ 🍎 bit.ly/AppleSweeper 🟢 bit.ly/SpotifySweeper

🇳🇴 Shock in the Norwegian Cup as national champions Bodø/Glimt are eliminated from the competition by second-tier Aalesunds in the third round. The defeat comes a matter of days after they were knocked out of the Europa League by Tottenham Hotspur at the semi-final stage.

Want to listen to the brand-new episode of The Sweeper early & ad-free? Join us on Patreon! ⬇️ 🔗 patreon.com/sweeperpod