The FootPol Podcast

This week's FootPol Podcast episode explores Indian football as a political and social phenomenon rather than simply a sport. Joining co-hosts Guy Burton and Francesco Belcastro in conversation is Sandeep Menon, author of Sacred Grounds: A Journey Through People’s Football in India. It traces how the game is embedded in India’s uneven political geography—from the northeastern states, where football intersects with histories of marginalisation and identity, to traditional centres like West Bengal and Goa. The discussion makes clear that, while football lacks the national political leverage of cricket, it plays a far more immediate role at the local level, where it reflects and shapes relationships between communities, regions and the state.
At the grassroots, football operates as a political ecosystem: local tournaments are tied to patronage networks, clubs and players become vehicles for influence and football spaces double as sites of civic and political life. These dynamics also reshape what “success” means—less about national leagues and more about community status, economic mobility and access to opportunity. At the same time, weak governance and institutional neglect continue to limit the sport’s development, particularly in the women’s game. The episode offers a concise but revealing account of how football in India functions where it matters most—locally, politically and socially rather than on the global stage.
In addition to Sacred Grounds, Sandeep is also the author of Out of the Blue: Bengaluru FC’s 10-Year Odyssey.

In the FootPol Podcast's latest episode, Francesco Belcastro and Guy Burton unpack the latest political storms that have shaken the football world in the past week. They start with the AFCON 2025 controversy, examining the dramatic reversal of Senegal’s victory against Morocco, the refereeing disputes, CAF politics and the political fallout for fans and federations. The discussion then moves to the looming 2026 World Cup in the United States, where Iran’s men’s team faces unprecedented challenges due to the ongoing US–Iran conflict, FIFA’s scheduling decisions and political pressure. Finally, they cover the Iranian women’s football team in Australia, whose asylum claims spotlight the complexities of migration policy, international politics and sport. Across these stories, the episode reveals how football, geopolitics and international regulations collide, shaping the future of the game on and off the field.

Football fanzines were once the DIY voice of supporters in Britain — photocopied, stapled together, and sold outside stadiums by fans who wanted to challenge clubs, authorities, and the football establishment. In this episode, Guy Burton and Francesco Belcastro speak with Paddy Hoey, senior lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University and author of influential research on football fan activism, including “The Future of Football Fanzines: Have They Lost Their Voice in this Digitalised and Deregulated Age?” and “From Fanzines to Food Banks: Football Fan Activism in the Age of Anti-Politics.”
Focusing on the British context, the conversation traces the rise of fanzines from the 1960s through their heyday in the 1980s and 1990s, when they became an important outlet for fan activism around issues such as ticket prices, policing, and the changing nature of the game — particularly in the turbulent years surrounding the Hillsborough disaster and the commercial transformation that followed the creation of the Premier League.
The episode also explores why these once-influential publications declined as football entered the digital age. From early internet forums to social media platforms like Twitter, many of the debates, humour, and fan commentary that once filled fanzines have moved online — raising questions about nostalgia, fan voice, and what has been gained and lost in the process.
Paddy also has a chapter on football in Glasgow in the forthcoming book, This is Our Game: From Barcelona to Buenos: Inside the World's Greatest Football Cities, edited by Joel Rookwood and Daniel Fieldsend, which will be out in May.

In this special FootPol Podcast episode, co-hosts Francesco Belcastro and Guy Burton confront the explosive intersection of geopolitics and sport as the United States and Israel’s military attacks on Iran cast a shadow over the latter's participation in the 2026 FIFA World Cup. With Iran’s FA signalling a potential withdrawal and the US having already imposed visa bans on numerous countries, including Iran, the episode explores the political fallout for the tournament co-hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico, the financial and sporting penalties Iran could face if it withdraws, and the contrasting silence from FIFA and UEFA when compared to their quick sanctioning of Russia after it invaded Ukraine. They also unpack the controversial relationship between Donald Trump and FIFA president Gianni Infantino and probe whether other nations or fans might protest or boycott the World Cup

The FootPol Podcast has reached 100 episodes! 
To mark this special occasion, we return to this season's World Cup debutants series, this time focusing on Cabo Verde’s historic qualification for the 2026 tournament. Co-hosts Guy Burton and Francesco Belcastro are joined by Cape Verdean historian and writer Emmanuel Charles D’Oliveira and Nuno Domingos, senior researcher at the University of Lisbon, to analyse the country’s rise ahead of fixtures against Spain, Uruguay and Saudi Arabia.
How did an Atlantic island nation of just over half a million people emerge as one of Africa’s most intriguing football stories? The discussion traces the game’s development from the colonial era under Portuguese rule through independence in 1975 and into the present, showing how football became embedded in national identity, state formation and diaspora politics. The episode explores Cabo Verde’s distinctive island-based league system, the decisive influence of migration and the Cape Verdean diaspora in Portugal and the Netherlands, debates over representation in the national team and the rapid expansion of women’s football. We also assess what World Cup qualification means for national pride, postcolonial identity and the wider visibility of Lusophone Africa on the global stage.