The Sweeper

📺 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

🇧🇦🇭🇷🇷🇸🇸🇮 How interesting would it be to see a cross-border women's league with top clubs from Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia & Slovenia?! Sponsors, please step up!

Thank you for the recognition @SweeperPod and sharing our campaign to recruit football players! If you would like to live, work and play football in paradise please get in touch!

🇬🇧🏝️ Alderney are the ultimate underdogs of unrecognised football, having not won a game in the Muratti Vase - the annual Channel Islands competition - for 100+ years. Now, though, they are recruiting players. Want to move to a beautiful island and play football? Check it out ⬇️

🇸🇷 64-year-old Ronnie Brunswijk, Suriname's vice-president & also a convicted drugs trafficker, is still registered to play for Inter Moengotapoe. He last played in a 2021 CONCACAF League match v. Hondurans Olimpia, after which he reportedly gave cash to the opposition players.

I’m so immensely proud of this. Creating and making The Sweeper in addition to my normal job has been incredibly challenging and there were points where I wasn’t sure it was sustainable. For @paul_c_watson and I to even get to this point is a professional dream come true! 😊

🎉 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 @NickMiller79 has hit that target 🎯✅ Thanks to all our amazing listeners & supporters! 🤩

🇨🇱🏝️ Every so often, a team from a remote island in the Pacific takes part in the Chilean Cup. ⬆️ In 2009, a Rapa Nui (Easter Island) team played Colo Colo against the backdrop of the Moai statues. ⬇️ And in 2024, the Juan Fernandez Islands played host to Santiago Wanderers.

🇸🇩 Al Hilal have managed the very rare feat of winning the league title in two different countries in the same season. The Omdurman club claimed the Sudan Elite League title having also won Mauritania's Super D1 league, but this only counted as an honorary title.

✈️⚽️ Which of the following four football clubs that are based in micro-states but play across the border in the league of a neighbouring country would you most like to visit? 🇦🇩 FC Andorra 🇪🇸 🇲🇨 AS Monaco 🇫🇷 🇱🇮 FC Vaduz 🇨🇭 🇸🇲 San Marino Calcio 🇮🇹

🇽🇰 It’s all happening at Ballkani v Floriana in the Conference League. Five first half goals and now there’s a power cut in Pristina turning all the lights out at the Fadil Vokrri Stadium!

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

☀️ For the first time since starting The Sweeper in February 2023, we will not be releasing a new episode tonight as we take a short break. We will be back as per usual on Wednesday 6 August. In the meantime, you can get episodes from us on Patreon at patreon.com/sweeperpod.

🇦🇺🏆 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!

🇫🇴 The Faroe Islands are Europe's most football-mad country, with the highest proportion of match-going fans across the continent. An incredible 10.22% of the Faroese population regularly attend football matches, which is more than twice as much as second-placed Iceland. With…

🇲🇺 La Cure Waves, who are based in the capital of Port Louis on the isolated island of Mauritius, have won the national cup for the first time. Remarkably, they were without a recognised keeper for the quarter-finals & semi-finals and had to put an outfielder between the sticks!

That is a big name signing for Alsager Town.

✈️ The squad of Azorean Island club Santa Clara are en route to Croatia for their UEFA Conference League qualifying clash on Thursday. For all you need to know about the club, their unique location, their travel logistics & their new-look logo, check out our thread ⬇️

Any Turkish people or @SweeperPod followers know where I can buy a @BursasporSk shirt in Istanbul?

🇦🇺 The Australian Cup round of 32, which begins today, has it all! ✈️ The old 'Distance Derby': Perth Glory v Wellington Phoenix ↖️ 🏝️ An island tie in Tasmania: South Hobart v. South Melbourne ↗️ 🇭🇷 Three clubs with Croatian roots: Adelaide Croatia Raiders, Gold Coast Knights &…

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