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The FootPol PodcastAuthor: Francesco Belcastro and Guy Burton
The podcast that brings together football and politics. We'll be exploring the relationship between the two, both inside and outside the game.The podcast covers "Big Politics" like politicians, clubs, international and national federations and other organised groups and how they use or abuse the game to "Small, Everyday Politics" in the form of community-level clubs, fan associations and the way that football reflects the political challenges of our day to day lives.The FootPol Podcast is brought to you by co-hosts Drs Francesco Belcastro and Guy Burton. Language: en-us Genres: News, Politics, Soccer, Sports Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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2026 World Cup Debutants: Uniting the Islands — Cabo Verde ft. Emmanuel Charles D’Oliveira & Nuno Domingos
Episode 13
Sunday, 1 March, 2026
The FootPol Podcast has reached 100 episodes! To mark this special occasion, we return to this season's World Cup debutants series, this time focusing on Cabo Verde’s historic qualification for the 2026 tournament. Co-hosts Guy Burton and Francesco Belcastro are joined by Cape Verdean historian and writer Emmanuel Charles D’Oliveira and Nuno Domingos, senior researcher at the University of Lisbon, to analyse the country’s rise ahead of fixtures against Spain, Uruguay and Saudi Arabia.How did an Atlantic island nation of just over half a million people emerge as one of Africa’s most intriguing football stories? The discussion traces the game’s development from the colonial era under Portuguese rule through independence in 1975 and into the present, showing how football became embedded in national identity, state formation and diaspora politics. The episode explores Cabo Verde’s distinctive island-based league system, the decisive influence of migration and the Cape Verdean diaspora in Portugal and the Netherlands, debates over representation in the national team and the rapid expansion of women’s football. We also assess what World Cup qualification means for national pride, postcolonial identity and the wider visibility of Lusophone Africa on the global stage.
