Stick it in Your Ear: The Offside Guide to Football Podcasts

By: Daryl | September 14th, 2007

Booze for your ears Ears are brilliant. Not only do they keep you balanced, you can stick things in them as well. My favourite thing to stick in there is a good football podcast, of which there are many. Here’s a quick rundown of my favourite soccer podcasts, in no particular order. Please feel free to add your own.

The Guardian Football Weekly (Mondays and Thursdays)
If you like The Fiver then you’ll love this. It’s all The Guardian’s bitterly funny football journalists discussing football matters on a bi-weekly basis, presented by the puntastic one and only James Richardson. It’s mostly Premiership focused but experts on other leagues are only a phone call away, with Sid Lowe providing always excellent comment and analysis of La Liga.

The Game (Mondays)
The Times aural offering is in a state of transition right now. Having lost/fired host Danny Kelly the show is now co-anchored by journalists Guillem Balague and Gabriel Marcotti. Both men have forgotten more about football than the rest of us will ever know, and seem to enjoy arguing over every little well-informed nuance of the beautiful game. But it still worked a lot better when Balague and Marcotti were being refereed by Kelly. Speaking of which…

Baker and Kelly (Fridays)
Danny Kelly has reteamed with old comrade Danny Baker, with whom he used to present a call-in show on the BBC. The new podcast is only one episode old but retains their light-hearted approach. Only strange thing is that their old show “Baker and Kelly Up Front” thrived on listeners phoning, which is unlikely to happen during a podcast.

World Soccer Daily (Weekdays)
The only decent football radio show in America (that I know of) is hosted by two Englishmen on Sirius satelite radio. The two-hour show is made available as a podcast the same day it’s broadcast. Can be a bit rambly, and some of the callers ask the stupidest questions (like “Is the full team name the Arsenal Gooners?”) and there’s way way way too many commercials, but still worth a listen, especially to hear a non-biased take on the ups, downs, ins and outs of MLS.

Podball365 (Thursdays)
“Like booze for your ears” is how Football365 describe their podbased offspring. Hosted by the always good value Sarah Winterburn, with regular contributions from the top Northern bloke John Nicholson, who always backs up even his most extreme opinions with an infallible argument. Only downside is the constant flirting that Winterburn and Nicholson indulge in, which always leaves me needing to bathe afterwards.

EPL Talk Podcast (Random but weekly)
The enigmatically titled “The Gaffer” is an Englishman living in the US and watching the Premier League. He scores great interviews with those in and around the Premiership, as well as keeping readers informed about the latest Fox Soccer Channel and Setanta North America developments.

Last but not least, the good old BBC has some fantastic football related output, most of which is available in podcast form:

Fighting Talk (Saturdays)
It’s a game show where contestant win points for argumentative “fighting talk” but it’s mostly just host Colin Murray and guests taking the piss out of sports personalities and each other. For Americans who are unfamiliar, it’s like Around The Horn but better because it’s mostly about football.

World Football (Saturdays)
The BBC is very Premiership-centric, but this weekly show covers football from all over the world. Especially good is South American football expert Tim Vickery, who knows everything there is to know about the beautiful game in Brazil and Argentina and isn’t afraid to share his information.

606 Football Phone-In (Saturdays, Sundays, Wednesdays)
After every day of Premiership action and every England game, listeners call the famous phone in show to air their grievances. It’s mostly fans claiming their teams is the best in the world, or saying their manager should be fired, but it’s a great way to get an immediate feeling of post-match emotion.

5 Live Football Daily (Every single day)
Edited highlights of each day’s Five Live football coverage, which usually contains some good insightful debate, especially the Monday Night Club with Stan Collymore and Paul Jewell.

Does anyone know of any other footy podcasts worth sticking in your ears? All extra suggestions listed below. Keep ‘em coming and we should end up with a fairly comprehensive list of soccer podcasts.

Off The Ball (Daily)
From Ireland’s Newstalk radio.

ESPN Soccernet Extra (Twice a week)
Informative but a bit dry for my liking. At least it’s not Dave O’Brien though.

A Game of Two Halves (Wednesdays)
Premier League coverage from Australia.

Championship Talk (Sundays)
EPL Talk spinoff devoted to England’s second tier (where my beloved Wolves reside, for now.) Hasn’t been updated for a couple of weeks though.

The 2 Gs (Weekdays)
The two Gs splintered away from World Soccer Daily a while back, and the two shows have been engaged in a futile war of bitchiness ever since.

Divers and Cheats
Along with the two Gs, this is part of the Championship Soccer Radio Network.

The Spurs Show (Random but fairly regular)
Lifelong Spurs fan Phil Cornwell (of Stella Street fame) has other celebrity guest in front of the microphone. Also hosted at Wippit, but that link is currently clicking about as well as Spurs’ strikers.

Seven Guys Short (Roughly every 10 days)
Two Americans covering football from around the world.

Serie A Talk (Every week, plus extras)
EPL Talk (see above) spin off covering all things Calcio, with plenty of good interviews.

La Liga Talk (Every week, plus extras)
Another EPL Talk spinoff, this time covering Spanish footy.