The Sweeper
@SweeperPod
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Welcome to The Sweeper, the world football podcast made in association with FIFA+. Watch/listen on Spotify, Apple & YouTube ⬇️
Joined February 2021
📺 NEW VIDEO PODCAST 📺. International football with @NickMiller79:. 🇬🇱 Why was Greenland rejected by CONCACAF?.🇽🇰 Whose hotel room did Kosovo's FA sneak into?.🇰🇮 Why have Kiribati not played since 2011?. European & club football:. 🇬🇪 How will Georgia's bodyguards fare in Europe?
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🇸🇩🏠 Fresh from their exploits in Mauritania, where they were crowned honorary champions as a guest club, Al-Hilal are now back in action in Sudan. They are taking part in the Championship Group, which will determine the wartorn country's representatives in CAF competitions.
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🏆 Only 38 days after PSG thrashed Inter 5-0 in the 2024/25 final, the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League campaign gets under way today!. The first ball will be kicked in Finland, where KuPS - from the country’s eighth biggest city - will play host to Milsami Orhei of Moldova 🔜
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12 hours later and we still haven’t been approached by either Tromsø or Dunedin to arrange this friendly… ⌛️
🆚 We're calling for a fixture between the northernmost and southernmost top-flight football clubs in the world!*. ⬆️🇳🇴 Tromsø.⬇️🇳🇿 Dunedin City Royals. *FIFA nations only
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🔜 The 2025/26 UEFA Champions League starts tomorrow - only 38 days after last season’s final!. What’s the first game of the qualifying rounds? And who could be the first club eliminated this season?
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If you enjoyed this thread, you will probably enjoy our podcast. You can find our video episodes on X, Spotify & YouTube via the link in our bio. Threads like this take a long time to write & research. Please help us reach new people & grow our audience by sharing the thread 🙏
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10) Nõmme Kalju 🇪🇪. It's no Mourinho hiding in the washing bin, but Nõmme Kalju's coach found an inventive way to get to and instruct his team. The suspended Nikita Andreyev climbed onto the roof for an Estonian league game against Levadia Tallinn in May, which his side won 2-0.
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9) Győr 🇭🇺. Győr's stadium backs onto a hotel, whose balcony you can stand on & watch the game behind the ultras - as we did here in 2023. We left and went into the stadium for the second half though: a 'How to get a man' seminar was taking place in the hotel lobby! 😅
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8) Wolfsberg 🇦🇹. Minnows Wolfsberg almost claimed the double, missing out on the league by a goal but winning the cup - their first major trophy. They celebrated with a party at the own stadium, where they accidentally set the roof alight & the fire brigade had to be called.
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7) Arda Kardzhali 🇧🇬. The Bulgarians made headlines last season by holding a minute's silence for ex-player Petko Ganchev, only to discover he was still alive. When Ganchev heard the news, he returned home, calmed down his wife and poured a glass of brandy to toast his health.
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6) Samsunspor 🇹🇷. Another European debutant is promoted Samsunspur, who came out of nowhere to finish third in Türkiye's Süper Lig last season. Their ultra group is called 'Şirinler', which translates as 'The Smurfs' - but don't underestimate them, they're a passionate bunch.
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5) Spaeri 🇬🇪. Founded by Georgia's Special State Protection Service in 2017, Spaeri are already making their European debut only eight years later. They are one of only two second-tier teams in UEFA competition this season - along with Vaduz - due to their Georgian Cup triumph.
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4) Bruno's Magpies 🇬🇮. Bruno's Magpies are a literal pub team, having been founded by an 18-year-old in his grandparents' pub, Bruno's in 2013. It is their last season before a name change: As of 2026/27, they will be known as Calpe City Magpies due to a merger with Calpe City.
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3) Santa Clara 🇵🇹. The continent's westernmost top-tier club, Santa Clara from the Azores will be hosting European football in the mid-Atlantic. The distance to Lisbon alone is 1,500km. They face Varaždin, who are not overly happy with the draw, in Conference League qualifying.
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2) Araz-Naxçıvan 🇦🇿. Araz are from an exclave of Azerbaijan separated from the mainland by the neighbouring country of Armenia and connected by a road/corridor. But they have played home games at the Dalğa Arena in Baku ever since returning to the Azeri Premier League in 2023.
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1) Milsami Orhei 🇲🇩. The very first Champions League tie of 2025/26 will see KuPS face Milsami Orhei, whose owner Ilan Shor co-orchestrated a $1 billion - 12% of Moldova's GDP - bank fraud in 2014. Was he disgraced? Did he go to prison? No, they elected him the Mayor of Orhei.
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🇪🇺 The qualifying rounds for the UEFA club competitions start tomorrow - only 38 days after the 2024/25 Champions League final. Who are the participants? What are their back stories? Join us for a whistlestop trip to 10 lesser-known corners of the European continent. THREAD 🧵
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🌍 Who wants a thread all about our favourite European teams in the UEFA club competition qualifying rounds, which start this week?
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🇱🇮 Tiny Liechtenstein has been the country where two of our favourite football memories have happened:. 2023: Hiking to all seven stadiums in the micro-state in the space of 24 hours. 2025: Watching three matches in three countries (🇦🇹 & 🇨🇭 too) in one day
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👕🇨🇳 Ready for the podcast recording today in Chongqing Tonglianglong merch!
🇨🇳🏙️ Chongqing, China's most populous megacity (31.91 million people), is the largest city in the world without a top-flight football club. Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic were dissolved during the 2022 Super League season, while Chongqing Tonglianglong play in the second tier.
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