Featuring
Andrés Martinez
Co-Director
I listen to some podcasts for fun, others for enlightenment. Football Weekly is the one I can listen to for both; it’s like eating your veggies while getting to eat your candy at the same time (if such a thing were yummy).
The subject is football, the English varietal (with plenty of visits to the continent thrown in midweek), but as with all good podcasts, the show’s success is mostly a matter of chemistry. In this case, the chemistry between the masterful host Max Rushden, his Irish sidekick Barry Glendenning, and the erudite constellation of Guardian and Guardian-adjacent journalists rotating through: Philippe Auclair, Robyn Cowen, Jonathan Wilson, Jordan Jarrett-Bryan, Nicky Bandini, Lars Sivertsen, among others. Plenty of listeners claim they tune in even if they don’t watch the Premier League action being discussed, and I don’t blame them; the conversations (and recurring humor) are that good.
Whether you are a lifelong fan of the sport, or just curious to learn more about its culture, Football Weekly is a good listen – funny. smart, and, well, sweet, something our culture is lacking these days. Max plays the cheerful Everyman who never loses sight of the fact that there is something absurd (if you think about it too much) about grown men taking this game so seriously, but the collective’s expertise gathered on any one episode is impressive. And being a product of the earnest folks at The Guardian, the pod doesn’t shy away from tackling some of the more troublesome social and geopolitical aspects of the sport.
But at the end of the day, what differentiates Football Weekly from any other podcast I’ve ever listened to is the tight emotional bond it has with an engaged global audience. I challenge you to find another podcast where sharp, funny, empathetic listeners all over the planet enhance each episode as much as Football Weekly’s do. It’s a testament to how sport creates community that can transcend borders. Football Weekly should prove especially compelling during next summer’s men’s World Cup. If England choke once again, Barry’s delight and needling of his mates will be fun to witness; and if they win, all hell should break loose.