The Sporting Almanac Podcast

World Cup Series Ep. 1 - The England SquadWith the club season for English teams now done and dusted, we turn our attention for the next two months to the biggest stage of all - the FIFA World Cup.In the first part of our multi-part series, we discuss who we'd have picked for the England squad, our reaction to the selections made and our feelings about where England's strengths and weaknesses lie.In future episodes we'll be covering World Cup history, controversies, shocks and tragedies, as well as - of course - discussing FIFA's sordid recent past and its impact on the game and the tournament as a whole.

The UEFA European FinalsWith one extraordinarily happy host in Ben, who has worn nothing but Arsenal shirts since the final whistle blew in Bournemouth last week, we preview the three European finals (even the one that already happened) as he hopes to go from obnoxiously delighted to utterly unbearable with a Gunners win in Budapest.But it's not just about Arsenal, far from it. We talk Europa and Conference League's too, about whether the former has been watered down by the ever growing number of Champions League qualifiers, and whether the latter is a tin pot or a magnificent opportunity for fans of traditionally smaller teams to experience a European run (ok, definitely option 2 on that one).Finally, we go back to our favourite topic - has the Champions League become a closed shop for the giants of the European game, can a Crystal Palace or even arguably an Aston Villa really hope to be able to compete for it year after year, or does state investment, financial "fair play" regulations and unbalanced leagues outside of England make this an unachievable goal, even with sustained success?

The EFL PlayoffsThe playoffs. The best, and the worst way to get promoted. A season coming down to one winner takes all match-up. The Championship final, the richest game in football, this year between Southampton and Hull City.Or so we all thought...The unexpected development of a football governing body growing a spine means that it will, pending appeal, be Middlesbrough playing Hull at Wembley. Couple this drama with the 40th anniversary of the playoffs, and these being the final edition played under current format... we picked a pretty good year to talk about this.Alongside this year's drama we talk playoffs of yesteryear, including the best final, the greatest comeback and Troy Deeney's unbeatable moment in 2013. The playoffs deliver drama like no other, though to be fair, it usually just on the pitch.

Oil, Oligarchs and the FA Cup FinalFootball has changed a lot since the glory days of the FA Cup. Some things are better left in the past - muddy Wembley pitches, heavy footballs and serious injuries every other final. Other things are still sorely missed - breakfast time coverage on Cup Final morning, joyous pitch invasions, and the genuine belief that almost anyone could win it.That unpredictability fading away has perhaps done more than anything else to fuel claims that the magic of the Cup is disappearing. In the last thirty years, just five clubs have won all but four FA Cup finals: Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, and this season’s finalists, Manchester City and Chelsea.This episode stands in stark contrast to last year’s celebration of the competition’s glorious history. Instead, this is something of a rant - and at times, a genuinely concerned one - about modern football and the financial imbalance that increasingly defines it. No clubs embody that shift more clearly than City and Chelsea, both transformed from outsiders into serial winners by vast wealth in remarkably short periods of time.Now, with accusations of financial impropriety hanging over one club and proven rule breaches with relatively limited punishment attached to the other, both stand at the forefront of a modern football economy dominated by a handful of superclubs. Clubs whose spending power - despite regulations supposedly designed to create financial fairness - continues to dwarf that of almost everyone else, while those same rules seem to be making it even harder for challengers to catch up.Because ultimately, how can the FA Cup ever truly regain its old magic when the highest reaches of the game feel less accessible than ever before?