📺 𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗘𝗣𝗜𝗦𝗢𝗗𝗘 📺 🇰🇵 Inside North Korea's top-secret league ❌ No fixture schedules. No TV. No live scores Plus: 🇨🇴 Wrexham's Hollywood owners in Colombia 🚀 The Sweeper's football shirt launch Watch or listen on Spotify, Apple or YouTube! 🤩

🚀 𝗙𝗜𝗡𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗬 - 𝗦𝗪𝗘𝗘𝗣𝗘𝗥 𝗦𝗛𝗜𝗥𝗧 𝗟𝗔𝗨𝗡𝗖𝗛 🚀 After months of planning, we're launching our first-ever football shirts with Stingz Prowear 👕 🌍 'Globe' & 'Retro' designs 💡 Light & dark colour schemes 💷 £39 (+PP) | £33 (+PP) for patrons ⌛️ First run now live Order yours 👇 stingz.co/collections/sweeper-podcast

🇩🇪 Geographically quirky "German" football clubs: 🏝️ VfL Helgoland: Based on a North Sea island and no opponents due to isolation 🇨🇭 FC Büsingen: In a German exclave inside Switzerland & in the Swiss pyramid 🇦🇹 SV Kleinwalsertal: Based in Austria but only accessible via Germany so in the German pyramid

🇲🇰 No top-flight club in Europe has picked up fewer points this term than Macedonian club Shkupi, who have only one point to their name. Champions as recently as 2022, they have imploded this season and look certain to go down, having lost to relegation rivals Rabotnicki at the weekend.

✍️ New World Football Newsletter ✍️ Every Monday, we pick a selection of world football stories from across the globe that we have held back from the pod and deliver them to your inbox. Join us on Patreon for access to all our exclusive perks: patreon.com/sweeperpod

🇰🇵 North Korea's imperious women's team, who are in the top 10 of the FIFA rankings, are set to kick off their AFC Women's Asian Cup campaign v. Uzbekistan. They have previously won the competition on three occasions, while at youth level they have won the U17 & U20 World Cups multiple times!

🇷🇴 We're big fans of Romanian second-tier club Chindia Târgoviște launching a new shirt with Vlad the Impaler's face printed on the front of them! Vlad the Impaler, who lived in the 1400s, was the inspiration for Count Dracula, the vampire protagonist in Irish writer Bram Stoker's famous novel.

🇪🇨 The Galapagos Islands, located around 1000km west of the mainland, have become the last province to join Ecuador's Football Association. League have been in operation on the three main islands since 2007, with the winners facing their counterparts from the other islands to determine the champion.

🇷🇴 Big news coming out of Romania, where FCSB are guaranteed to finish the regular season outside the top six and cannot retain their title! It has been a tough season for FCSB, who have been knocked out of the cup, the Europa League & are no longer recognised as 1986 European Cup winners by UEFA!

🇩🇰 Shock in Denmark! FC Copenhagen, Danish champions in three of the last four seasons, have finished in the bottom half of the Superligaen table at the end of the regular season! The table splits into two at this stage of the season, with the capital club now set to compete in the Relegation Group!

🇦🇸 It is a huge day for American Samoa, who sensationally beat the Solomon Islands this week, as they continue their 2027 Women's World Cup qualifying campaign against nearby Samoa today. Even though they are only 160km apart, the International Date Line runs between American Samoa and Samoa.

🇮🇹 The coach of Virtus Verona in Italy's Serie C is Gigi Fresco, who has been in charge since 1982 when he was appointed chairman and named himself as coach. Amid a tough season - in which Verona have been battling relegation - the world's longest-serving coach has joked he may sack himself!

🇹🇿 An unusual geographic relocation takes place in Tanzania's big derby between Young Africans & Simba, who are based in the capital Dar es Salaam. With the Benjamin Mkapa Stadium unavailable, Young Africans have decided to move the game off the mainland to Zanzibar, drawing anger from Simba.

🇦🇿 A huge clash takes place in Azerbaijan today as league leaders Sabah take on perennial champions Qarabağ in a top-of-the-table clash. If Sabah win, they will go 10 points clear and seriously threaten Qarabağ's hold on the Premier League: they have become champions in 11 of the last 12 years.

🇦🇹 Only one the three relegation spots in Austria's second tier will be decided by sporting performance this season. Village club Stripfing withdrew in November 2025 due to financial issues, while Austria Klagenfurt continue to play but have entered into insolvency and been forcibly demoted.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 HMP Prescoed, based in Monmouthshire, is a team consisting of prison inmates that plays home games on the prison pitch. As they cannot travel to away games, these are held on prison grounds - but the result is awarded as a 5–0 win for the visitors and a three-point deduction to the prison team!

🇵🇹 Lusitânia Lourosa have the lowest squad market value in Portugal’s second tier but are chasing a second successive promotion after winning the third tier last term. Their chances are better than a cursory glance at the table might suggest, as third-placed Sporting B are not eligible to go up.

🇬🇪 Today is the culmination of a decade-long journey for Georgian club FC Spaeri: 🆕 2017: Founded 🆙 2018: Promoted from fifth tier 🆙 2019: Promoted from fourth tier 🆙 2021: Promoted from the third tier 🆙 2025: Promoted from the second tier 📅 Today: First-ever Erovnuli Liga match!

🇵🇬 Hekari United of Papua New Guinea, who were the only winless club in the OFC Pro League, have finally gotten off the mark against Vanuatu United! They remain rooted to the bottom of the table but will have the chance to change that when they face Tahiti United on Tuesday next week.

You asked for merch. We've delivered. Watch this space. Coming 🔜 🎙️ @sweeperpod.bsky.social 🤝 Stingz ProWear 👕

⭐️ We're immensely proud that our podcast is rated 5-star across all the major platforms. The reason: Every week, we bring you the most extraordinary stories in world football - ones that you rarely find anywhere else. Svalbard this week, North Korea next week. Join us!

🇦🇸 American Samoa’s women have pulled off a stunning upset against the Solomon Islands in qualifying for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup! American Samoa only picked up their first-ever qualifying win last November, now they have beaten the reigning OFC Women’s Nations Cup champions!

🎙️ NEW BONUS EPISODE 🎙️ 🇸🇪 Östersunds crowdfund to re-sign fan favourite 🇧🇷 Red card for headbutt on own goalie 🇧🇷 Convicted killer signed by Vasco-AC 🇩🇪 Elversberg: From the pub to the Bundesliga? 🇵🇹 Lusitânia de Lourosa: Back-to-back promotions? Join us on Patreon to listen: patreon.com/sweeperpod

🇨🇭 Sadly, we have had to cancel our trip to promoted Swiss league leaders Thun next week for their table-topping clash against St. Gallen. But we will definitely be making it to Switzerland at some point in March or April to make up for it and to dig deeper into this insane story!

🇳🇴 The world's northernmost 11-a-side football pitch is in Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago near the North Pole. It used host an annual match between Norwegians from Longyearbyen & Russian miners in nearby Barentsburg - but tensions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine have put an end to that.

🇸🇻 Father and son Ernesto and Daniel Corti both coach in El Salvador's Primera División. Their recent head-to-head meetings: Son 0-4 Father: Son sacked from Cacahuatique Father 1-0 Son: Son sacked from Fuerte San Francisco Son 1-4 Father: Son thrashed on his birthday

✍️ NEW BLOG ✍️ What is the first football fact that comes to mind when we think about each of the 55 UEFA nations? Find out in our blog series, the final instalment of which is out now & covers San Marino to Wales 🇸🇲➡️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 To read the blog, simply join us on Patreon at patreon.com/sweeperpod!

🔗 Read it for free by clicking on the link in our stories or by signing up as a free member at patreon.com/sweeperpod 🤩

🇳🇴 Loveable Norwegians Bodø/Glimt continue to defy the odds with a double over Italian giants and Serie A leaders Inter to progress to the Champions League round of 16! Their only results now since December: a draw in Dortmund, followed by wins over Man City, Atlético Madrid and Inter twice! Insane!

📺 𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗘𝗣𝗜𝗦𝗢𝗗𝗘 📺 🇳🇴 Bodø/Glimt clear 80 tons of snow & beat Inter 🧊 Svalbard: Football at the top of the world 🇸🇻 The father-son feud that ruined a birthday 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Hashtag United: Cup final v own reserves! 🇳🇱 Jonker Boys: The club forced to play at home Watch or listen on Spotify, Apple or YouTube! 🤩

✍️ New World Football Newsletter ✍️ Every Monday, we pick a selection of world football stories from across the globe that we have held back from the pod and deliver them to your inbox. Join us on Patreon for access to all our exclusive perks: patreon.com/sweeperpod

🇦🇲 Displaced Armenian club Lernayin Artsakh were relegated from the Premier League in summer 2023 before fleeing their hometown of Stepanakert, which is now under Azerbaijani control, later that year. They have played in exile 200 kilometres away in the capital city Yerevan ever since.

🇪🇸 There are now three current Real Madrid first-team players who own (either majority or minority stakeholdings in) other clubs across Europe: Kylian Mbappé - Caen (French third tier) 🇫🇷 Thibault Courtois - Le Mans (French second tier) 🇫🇷 Vinicius Junior - Alverca (Portuguese top flight) 🇵🇹

🏆 The Baltic Cup, which dates back to 1928 and is one of Europe’s oldest international competitions, is set to return in June 2026. Taking place biennially, the Baltic trio of Latvia, Lithuania & Estonia are traditionally joined by a guest nation - on this occasion, the Faroe Islands!

🇳🇱 Raheem Sterling could make his debut for Feyenoord v. Telstar today after receiving a work permit for the Netherlands earlier this week. In an unusual move, the Rotterdam club relocated their entire training operations to neighbouring Belgium until Sterling's permit came through!

🇦🇹 There are not many closer title races across Europe than the one currently unfolding in Austria, where the Bundesliga's top four are two points apart. And today Salzburg, who have just appointed Daniel Beichler as their new coach, take on high-flying LASK in a table-topping clash!

🇮🇹 It's 'Mafia Derby Day' in Serie C as Foggia & Crotone, the two clubs under judicial supervision due infiltration by the local mob, go head-to-head. Mafia infiltration of Italian football, including its lucrative merchandising and ticketing businesses, is sadly a well-known phenomenon.

🇽🇰 Not only are Kosovo unofficial world champions, but there is also a thriving league - Drita even reached the UEFA Conference League knockouts this season!

🇷🇴 FC Romania were founded by Ionuţ Vintilă, a Romanian living in the UK, as a way for Romanian immigrants to play football together. They started as a Sunday league team but then entered the English pyramid and now play in the 10th tier Eastern Counties League Division One South.

🇲🇾 No club in world football is on a longer domestic unbeaten run right now than Johor Darul Taz'im of Malaysia, who are undefeated in 94 matches. This season they have been even more dominant than usual, with 16 wins from 16 games and a 16-point lead over their closest challengers.

🇬🇮 It is genuinely amazing that this tiny peninsula at the foot of Spain is a member of UEFA and boasts a 12-team league!

🇸🇪 Swedish second-tier team Östersund's supporters have been Crowdfunding to raise money to bring back fan favourite Curtis Edwards to the club. They reached their funding target of 200,000 Swedish Krona (£16,400) and Edwards has left Gateshead, where he was playing, by mutual consent!

🇳🇿 A hammering in the A-League’s ‘New Zealand Derby’ led to Wellington Phoenix coach Giancarlo Italiano tendering his resignation! The opener was one of the longest-range strikes we’ve seen: Jake Girdwood-Reich hit from just outside his box, opposition keeper Josh Olawayemi headed into his own goal!

📈 Only Benfica 🇵🇹, Tre Fiori 🇸🇲, Slavia Prague 🇨🇿, Vardar 🇲🇰 & Fenerbahçe 🇹🇷 are undefeated in the league in the 2025/26 season!

🇧🇷 This Copa do Brasil game is already a contender for the craziest cup tie of 2026 worldwide! 🟥 Porto-BA had two players sent off in the first half - one of them for headbutting his own keeper! 💥 Despite being two men down, Porto-BA then scored in the 90th and 97th minutes to win the tie!

🇩🇪 The promotion race in Germany's 2. Bundesliga is really heating up, with the top five teams separated by only three points in the standings. Among the contenders are: ➡️ Schalke - former champions ➡️ Elversberg - from a village of 13,000 ➡️ Hannover - the only second-tier club to win the DFB-Pokal

🇨🇭 WE'RE COMING TO THUN 🤩🔜 We will be in Switzerland on 5 March to watch promoted club and runaway Super League leaders Thun take on second-placed St. Gallen! If you are a Thun supporter or you're going to be in the city for this table-topping clash, then let us know. We'd love to meet you!

🇵🇱 A huge city derby takes place in Poland's second tier today as runaway leaders Wisła Kraków face closest challengers Wieczysta Kraków. The visitors were founded during WW2 so locals could play football during the Nazi occupation of Poland & have risen from the 7th tier since 2017!

🎙️ NEW BONUS EPISODE 🎙️ 🇵🇾 Roadside selfies for Paraguay's 2 de Mayo 🇨🇬 AS Otoho's CAF Confederation Cup heroics ❌ No domestic football in Congo for 1.5 years 🇿🇦 The Mamelodi Sundowns' spygate scandal 🇹🇲 Arkadag's human tifo v. Saudi side Al Nassr Join us on Patreon to listen: patreon.com/sweeperpod

🇦🇲 Amazing scenes in Armenia as Noah become the first-ever club from the country to win a European knockout tie (post group/league phase)! Not only is it historic, but it is also a major statistical upset: Noah are ranked 160th in the UEFA club coefficient, whereas AZ are in 42nd place!