The Assistant Professor of Football: Soccer, Culture, History. – Détails, épisodes et analyse

To critique the state of our world, our communities, to critique what is wrong with soccer in late stage capitalism is one thing. It actually isn’t a hard thing. But to dream, think and even plan for a better world, and a better football, that is something different entirely. Alina Schwermer, a young and extremely talented German journalist, has done just that, on 450 pages, in her book Futopia: Ideas for a Better Footballing World. It’s a book about football, and about utopias. About the game and how we can reimagine it, but also about a different, more vibrant and just world. We discuss new rulebooks, a critique of competition and beauty as we now know it, a new financial order for the sport, and some DIY ideas for your local context. 

Tune in and, I promise, you will be rewarded and your imagination will be stretched. And you can tell your friends afterwards that you are well ahead of the curve by having listened into this book, because it isn’t translated into English. Not yet.

HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:

Alina Schwermer, Futopia (book page and interview in German with the publisher, Werkstatt Verlag)

Futopia on Twitter/X @FussballUtopien

Futopia for purchase in the U.S.

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup)

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If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please

• Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help.
• Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me.

Artwork for The Assistant Professor of Football is by Saige Lind

Instrumental music for this podcast, including the introduction track, is by the artist Ketsa and used under a Creative Commons license through Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/

Gent in Belgium. Rasgrad in Bulgaria. Mostar in Bosnia. Borås in Sweden. Tiraspol in, well, Moldova. Or Differdange in Luxemburg

If you know where these places are, have some sense of what it looks like there, what the vibe is, perhaps it is because of the early UEFA club competitions' qualifying rounds. It is for me. If it isn't for you yet, it's time it was. I know I’ve often said in the past this podcast is intended to look beyond the big leagues, beyond stars and their goals, but never have we cast the ned so deeply and widely as today. Lee Wingate is the Visiting Professor today, an Englishman who lives in Vienna. He shares with us his deep knowledge of the faraway corners of European football, corners that are on full display during these weeks, because it’s the best season of them all: the qualifying rounds for the European club tournaments are on. How these tournaments work, what countries, teams or scenic grounds to watch out for - listen in.

HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:

The Sweeper

UEFA Europa League 2024/25

UEFA Conference League 2024/25

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup)

Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook.

If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please

• Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help.
• Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me.

Artwork for The Assistant Professor of Football is by Saige Lind

Instrumental music for this podcast, including the introduction track, is by the artist Ketsa and used under a Creative Commons license through Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/

... of all people! Raphael is a German political scientist, whose book "Peace to the Terraces, War to the Federations and Leagues" is a pathbreaking materialist critique of "modern soccer" - the game as purely an entertainment market commodity. The book is only published in German so far, and we were in the process of rolling out his thoughts with the ongoing conflict between German fans and the German Bundesliga as a case in point (you know, the one with tennis balls and remote-controlled cars thrown on the pitch in recent weeks...). About halfway through, the bomb dropped: sooner than any of us expected, the Bundesliga collapsed and nixed the negotiation with the private equity firm that was interested. We let out a "holy shit!" and analyzed what this might mean, and what concrete solutions Raphael's thoughts provide for the future.

This episode was to air on March 4th - given what happened today while we talked, I rushed it live. This may mean no TAoF episode on March 4th then, check social media for updates. For now, you wont regret this window into a very german conflict with a lot of promise for soccer fans around the world - the fans to whom this beautiful game truly belongs!

HELPFUL LINKS :

Raphael's book, in German

Raphael Molter on X/Twitter

Protests in Rostock - remote controlled cars with flares on them

Protests in Dortmund - chocolate coins and tennis balls

Matt Ford, Bundesliga scraps major investment deal amid fan revolt (dw.com)

Gabriel Kuhn, Soccer vs. The State (an interview with him on TAoF from last year)

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup)

Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook.

If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please

• Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help.
• Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me.

Artwork for The Assistant Professor of Football is by Saige Lind

Instrumental music for this podcast, including the introduction track, is by the artist Ketsa and used under a Creative Commons license through Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/

Indie, Hip Hop, Punk, Reggae, Ska and Choruses- from Leeds to Istanbul, from Vienna to Mexico City, from Darmstadt to Buenos Aires. Your second soccer playlist is here - with some background info, and plenty of quirky football lyrics.

PLAYLIST FOR THIS EPISODE - links to videos:

Puma Hardchorus - England, France, Germany and Italy

Alberto Colucci - Die Sonne Scheint (SV Darmstadt 98)

Manu Chao (with Diego Maradona) - La Vida Tombola

Sultans of Ping - I'm in Love with a Football Hooligan

Luke Haines - Leeds United

Mono & Kreiml - Verteilerkreisflavour

Athena - Hooligans

Biberstand Boys - Unioner im Haus

Ky-Mani Marley's live rendition of Bob Marley - Three Little Birds

Maldita Vecintad - Fut Callejero Pura Diversión

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup)

Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook.

If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please

• Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help.
• Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me.

Artwork for The Assistant Professor of Football is by Saige Lind

Instrumental music for this podcast, including the introduction track, is by the artist Ketsa and used under a Creative Commons license through Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/

If you are thinking of dreaming of going to England, seeing a Premier League game, dive into the atmosphere that you see on TV, or even have concrete travel plans already to finally see one game of the club you otherwise follow on TV, then this episode is for you. If you are listening from England, and have followed your club for years and decades, it's for you as well.

Felipe Tobar, originally from Brazil, is a scholar at Clemson University in South Carolina and has written about soccer tourism to England, Premier League related club museums, stadium tours etc. - all the stuff tourists do - as well as overtourism, its effect on local fans, and the danger it could be to the very product that the Premier League is trying to sell. 

We begin by mapping what this tourism is, and how the combination of neoliberal capitalism, international TV and individual club’s initiatives have shaped a billion dollar business around the beautiful game in the Premier League. Then we talk about the negative effects. And then, we tried to give a little bit of advice: how can you go, and be a good tourist while there - what should you know before you go and what should you do and not do when there. The intent is not to bash tourists (almost all of us are, in some way, as we’ll make clear) but chart a more sustainable path forward for the game we all love, and international as well as local fans.

HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:

Felipe Tobar, website with links to publications (Twitter/X, "Football Studies" on Youtube")

"VisitBritain Discusses the Impact of Soccer on UK Tourism" - interview with a British tourism executive (December 2023)

The Enemy, "We'll Live and Die in These Towns" (music video)

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup)

Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook.

If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please

• Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help.
• Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me.

Artwork for The Assistant Professor of Football is by Saige Lind

Instrumental music for this podcast, including the introduction track, is by the artist Ketsa and used under a Creative Commons license through Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/

I thought today’s episode needed a long rationalization.  But as I was writing it, I thought f*** it, I don’t need to be doing  verbal gymnastics. I know human beings, there, and our guest does too. So we’ll just let these stories speak. About soccer, about trauma, about peace and coexistence, and about youth cultures both left and right of center in what is a diverse and divided country. This was a hard episode for me to prepare and process. But I am deeply grateful it came together. 

From Israeli ultras killed or kidnapped, to the Arab soccer club that won the Israeli cup, to what football and medicine in Israel have in common, we go to Ashdod, in the south of Israel, to Felix Tamsut. He is a self described lefty journalist who covers football and fan cultures for outlets in Germany and Israel. And he is also a wonderful human to talk us through a strange time and, I hope, stretch our empathy muscles.
Plus, 2 bands from Israeli ultra groups on the way.

HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:

Select recent texts by Felix Tamsut:

"Israel Protests: What Have Football Fans Got to Do With It?" (on the protests against  Netanyahu's judicial reform)

"Israel at War: German Football Clubs Offer Support" (after Inbar Haiman's murder was confirmed)

Former Israeli Football Star Lior Assulin Murdered by Hamas (on the Jewish striker at  Arab club Bnei Sachknin)

"Seeking to Divide Palestinians, Netanyahu Splits Israelis" (most recent, not on soccer)

"Israel Struggles to Discuss October 7th Sexual Violence" (not on soccer)

Felix on X/Twitter, Bluesky and Instagram

Havat Ma2Or (Maccabi Haifa band) on Spotify

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup)

Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook.

If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please

• Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help.
• Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me.

Artwork for The Assistant Professor of Football is by Saige Lind

Instrumental music for this podcast, including the introduction track, is by the artist Ketsa and used under a Creative Commons license through Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/

Just a few weeks ago, Poland elected a new parliament. The result was a change in power, from the national conservative camp to the centrist, pro-European one. And the campaign, yet again, highlighted, to use an overused term, the culture wars over defining the future of one of the European Union’s largest but also newest member states. Historically occupied by its neighbors over and over again, risen from the Eastern bloc, riven between a historically national Catholic identity and the fast pace of capitalism and Westernization, between skepticism toward those changes but also a deep antagonism towards Russia, Poland is constantly, it seems, at a historical crossroads. And its soccer culture, says our guest today, highlights that. Simultaneously behind and ahead of the curve of the rest of the continent, here lies an often still undiscovered landscape of dramatic change, shady business, physical violence combined with often new stadiums and lack of success on the field. Intrigued yet? We journey into the heart of Europe with Alex Webber, a British journalist who has lived in Poland a long time and has made it his passion to chronicle the history that is unfolding before his eyes. 

HELPFUL LINKS FOR TODAY'S EPISODE:

Alex's blog

Alex's Instagram

Polish Hooligan Rap (the tune played later during the episode)

Legia vs. Cracovia, tifo and intro (Youtube video)

Copa90 mini-documentary on Polish ultras (Youtube)

The impressive Polish national anthem, played during some kind of recent tournament

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup)

Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook.

If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please

• Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help.
• Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me.

Artwork for The Assistant Professor of Football is by Saige Lind

Instrumental music for this podcast, including the introduction track, is by the artist Ketsa and used under a Creative Commons license through Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/

A mini audiobook - for the time to think in the evenings after the presents have all been unwrapped, or for a listen with the children:

As the story goes, on Christmas 1914, during world war 1, in the trenches of Belgium, German and English soldiers laid down their weapons, shook hands, and played a game of football in the no man’s land between the lines. Historians are unsure if an actual match was played, you can find more on that debate in the shownotes. But for today, that is neither here nor there. At the very least, on that day, the possibility of football pointed beyond the war. And so, this Christmas, 2023, we’ll pause our regular conversations. 

I will be reading from the award winning children’s book The War Game, by Michael Foreman, from 1994. Foreman narrates the story of Freddie, Billy, Lacey and Will, avid soccer playing teenagers from the English countryside, who find themselves caught up in the euphoria of flag-waving and patriotism when war breaks out in 1914. "We'll be back by Christmas," they think. By Christmas however they are in the muddy trenches, as a soccer ball emerges between the battle lines. Whether the story ends in tragedy or in hope remains up to you.

HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:

Michael Foreman, War Game

The Christmas Truce: What Really Happened in the Trenches in 1914? (Video by the Imperial War Museum, London)

History Extra with 2 historians’ perspectives on whether a football match actually took place

"Comfort Comfort O My People" - sung by Conrad Grebel University chapel choir (Words: Johann G. Olearius (1611–1684); tr. Catherine Winkworth (1827–1878), alt.; Music: Psalm 42, melody and bass Claude Goudimel (1514–1572);)

"Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht" - performed by "Cesar All Guitar" (Words: Joseph Mohr (1818); Music: Franz Xaver Gruber (1818) 

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup)

Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook.

If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please

• Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help.
• Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me.

Artwork for The Assistant Professor of Football is by Saige Lind

Instrumental music for this podcast, including the introduction track, is by the artist Ketsa and used under a Creative Commons license through Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/

An arranged marriage of a Greek and a Celt began the settlement of Massalia, today: Marseille. Europe’s bellwether of multiculturalism, 2nd city of France, one of Europe’s biggest ports, migrant destination for centuries, cauldron of socioeconomic conflict, cradle of French rap music - and home of Olympique, still France’s only Champions League winner ever. A few days after that win, the club went under in a bribery scandal and forced relegation. 

A few more headlines on Olympique Marseille, or OM? Voila: Coaches change pretty much every year. A lion in the changing room. Fans light players’ cars and parts of the training facilities on fire. The world’s only football club with a rap label. Fanclubs with names like Dodgers, Yankees and Winners. Not one but two Ultra stands. And players like Didier Drogba, Didier Deschamps, Laurent Blanc, Dimitri Payet, Fabien Barthez.

There is never a boring moment with Olympique Marseille, who made it to the Europa League again this year. Our visiting professor is Ben Senouillet, chairman of OM’s official English fanclub and quite the hobby historian of his club. We first introduce the city and Olympique’s roots, then discuss the culture that surrounds the club on the terraces, stands and in the city - and finally, the crazy last 30 years since the Champions League win.

HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:

Olympique Marseille (English club website, official)

Olympique Marseille, History in English

The Guardian, Sept. 2023, "Marseille are a Managerless Mess and Their Fans Deserve Some of the Blame"

South Winners Marseille (Ultras, French)

Commando Ultras 84 (French)

highsnobiety.com, "Olympique de Marseille is Launching Its Own Rap Label"

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup)

Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook.

If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please

• Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help.
• Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me.

Artwork for The Assistant Professor of Football is by Saige Lind

Instrumental music for this podcast, including the introduction track, is by the artist Ketsa and used under a Creative Commons license through Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/

FC St. Pauli is a 2nd Bundesliga team from Hamburg. That’s one thing. It is also "Germany’s original cult club," an "antifascist pioneer," the "club of punk and techno, or a "swashbuckling left wing club." The history behind these labels begin in the late 1980s, when punks occupied houses around St. Pauli’s stadium and antiracists found out that football grounds didn't just belong to Neonazis. It continues today, in a club that has  spoken out against the overcommercialization of football,  or as an ally to refugees, and in a fan culture that defines and defends its antifascist ties between neighboring Bremen and faraway Tel Aviv, Israel.
The Fanladen St Pauli connects the then and now. It's a fan-run and, very uniquely, social-worker led project with deep ties of accountability and advocacy to the club, its fanculture and the public, and deep roots in the community. 
Julian and Paul from the Fanladen offer the lens of activist fans and knowledgable social workers to discuss what works at FC St. Pauli, some history, but also the dangers of the internationalization and commercialization of St. Pauli’s rebellious image. This is also the first TAoF episode that dropped sociologist Benedict Anderson's name - and it wasn't me who dropped it!

HELPFUL LINKS:

Highlights, with English commentary, from GAK - Sturm (2-3) on 11/2
Fanladen/Fan Project St. Pauli, website in English

Charles Vinas and Natxo Parra, St. Pauli: Another Football is Possible (Pluto Press, 2020) - review by Jacobin Magazine
The Guardian (2018), "FC St Pauli: how it became the football team of punk and techno"

Die Sterne - Wenn Dir St. Pauli auf den Geist fällt (This music video was filmed at the Millerntor stadium, pre-renovation)

St. Pauli enters the field to AC/DC’s “Hells Bells” in the Hamburg derby

St. Pauli - goal and goal music

Nina Glick Schiller, "Long Distance Nationalism

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup)

Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook.

If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please

• Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help.
• Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me.

Artwork for The Assistant Professor of Football is by Saige Lind

Instrumental music for this podcast, including the introduction track, is by the artist Ketsa and used under a Creative Commons license through Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/