The FootPol Podcast
The podcast that brings together football and politics. We'll be exploring the relationship between the two, both inside and outside the game.
The podcast covers "Big Politics" like politicians, clubs, international and national federations and other organised groups and how they use or abuse the game to "Small, Everyday Politics" in the form of community-level clubs, fan associations and the way that football reflects the political challenges of our day to day lives.
The FootPol Podcast is brought to you by co-hosts Drs Francesco Belcastro and Guy Burton.
The FootPol Podcast
Latest Episodes
Hook, Lock and Squeeze: Football's Enshittification ft. Mark O'Neill
What if football is following the same path as social media: hook the users, lock them in, then squeeze them for everything they're worth? In this episode, we talk to Mark O'Neill, a doctoral researcher at Westminster University, about the “ens...
World Cup 2026 special issue ft. Danyel Reiche & Tamir Bar-On
The 2026 World Cup is already generating political heat long before kick-off. In this episode, Francesco is joined by Tamir Bar-On and Danyel Reiche, sport and politics experts and editors of a
How France’s Football Became a Political Battleground ft. Jonathan Ervine
With the 2026 World Cup just weeks away, France once again enters the tournament as one of football’s superpowers — but what does the French national team actually represent in modern France? In this gripping episode, co-hosts Guy Burton and Fr...
2026 World Cup Debutants: How Curaçao Built a World Cup Team in the Netherlands ft. Karym Leito & Margo Groenewoud
As Curaçao prepares for its first-ever FIFA World Cup appearance, the latest episode of the FootPol podcast goes far beyond football. Host Guy Burton is joined by historians and researchers Karym Leito and Margo Groenewoud to unpack how a small...
Can Football Explain Globalisation? Revisiting the Theory ft. Graham Cornwell
What does football really reveal about globalisation—and where does that neat theory start to fall apart? In this episode, hosts Guy Burton and Francesco Belcastro are joined by historian and analyst Graham Cornwell (George Washington Universit...
