The magic of the Coupe de France, Colo Colo’s trip to Easter Island & Spain's Mascot Olympics

The Sweeper - A World Football Podcast

With overseas territories from all over the world taking part, the Coupe de France is one of the world’s most intriguing domestic football competitions. But who funds it? How do they decide who plays home and away? And could an overseas side play in a UEFA competition if they won the tournament. In Part 1, co-hosts Lee Wingate and Paul Watson answer all the key questions about the French Cup and reflect on their recent journey to the sleepy rural town of Saint-Mesmin to watch sixth-tier Saint-Méziéry play host to Tahitian cup winners AS Pirae in the seventh round of the tournament.

Next up in Part 2: the world’s most isolated clubs! There’s a mention for Rapa Nui FC of Easter Island, who hosted the mighty Colo Colo in a 2009 Chilean Cup clash, Khabarovsk, who travel around 100,000km per season to fulfil their away fixtures in the Russian second tier, and Perth Glory, who cut an isolated figure in the Australian A-League. That’s followed by the remarkable story of Papua New Guinea’s exit from the Pacific Games and a look back at some other harsh tournament eliminations, including the coin toss at EURO 1968 and the madness of the 1994 Caribbean Cup, where goals briefly counted double!

In the third and final segment, it’s time for a round-up of the remaining stories. Erling Haaland paid for 200 fans of his first club, Bryne, to travel to Kristiansand for a play-off match, only for the Start groundsman to fail to turn on the undersoil heating and the game to be cancelled. There’s cucumber throwing and so much more besides at the Mascot Olympics in Spain, which was won by Valencia’s representative Amunt the Bat. And finally, two Tiktokers have bought and relocated Latvian second-division club Leevon Saldus with the aim of getting them promoted to the Virslīga. We hope you enjoy the show!

*Correction: AS Pirae qualified for the 2023/24 Coupe de France by winning the Coupe de Polynésie.

RUNNING ORDER:

Part 1: The magic & madness of the Coupe de France and our trip to watch Saint Méziéry vs. AS Pirae of Tahiti in the seventh round (00:47)

Part 2: The world's most isolated clubs and Papua New Guinea's incredibly harsh elimination from the Pacific Games (22:27)

Part 3: The undersoil heating fiasco in Norway, the Mascot Olympics in Spain & the Latvian club bought by Tiktokers (44:12)