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
Socialist soccer? The beautiful game in the USSR and after its collapse ft. Yacov Zohn
This week co-hosts Guy and Francesco sit down with Yacov Zohn, a PhD candidate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, to explore the fascinating history of football during the Soviet era and its evolution in post-Soviet Russia, Ukraine, and Georgia. Yacov talks about how Soviet football reflected the centralisation of power in Moscow under the party-state, the impact of political and economic shifts under leaders like Stalin and Khrushchev on the game, and the continuities between the Soviet and post-Soviet periods, including the influence of oligarchic power on football clubs in the region.
Join us for an engaging discussion that connects politics, history, and sport, shedding light on how the legacy of the Soviet Union continues to shape football in these successor states.
