The Assistant Professor of Football: Soccer, Culture, History.

• We're Not Playing for Fun! Organized Workers' Soccer, Utopia (and Sobriety) between the World Wars - and the Message for Today

  Gabriel Kuhn is an Austrian writer and researcher who works for the Central Organization of Swedish Workers - and sat for an in-person interview (he has been on before when we talked about his wonderful book Soccer vs the State in 2023.) In this episode, we time travel to "red Vienna"  in the 1920s, to talk about how antifascism, organized workers' sports, the professionalization of soccer and sobriety intersected then, and what promise they can hold for the present. Our baseline is the life of Viennese Social Democratic leader Julius Deutsch, an edited collection of whose writings Gabriel has published with a comprehensive introduction by himself. British historian Richard Crockett recently wrote the seminal Vienna: How the City of Ideas Created The Modern World. He argues that the Vienna before everyone fled, first from the Austrian fascists and then from the Nazis, the “Red” Vienna, governed by the Social Democrats, was a kind of a laboratory for the modern world. From psychoanalysis to Reaganomics, from Hollywood Westerns to fitted kitchens - this city, Crockett says, made the modern world. That is also the time period, in which a separate workers football association and a workers football league saw the light of day in Austria, an alternative to the rapidly professionalizing other Austrian league, and Austrian football association. Working class organizers and politicians saw not just the recreational value of soccer, and watching soccer. They also saw its social, organizational, ethical and prophetic value. First, another football became possible - to make clear that another world was possible, too. HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:Gabriel’s website, with more on the Julius Deutsch book and other books herePM Press, book website for the book Gabriel Kuhn interview on Julius Deutsch in Jacobin MagazineTAPoF Episode 44, on Hakoah Vienna, Austria’s first professional champion in 1925Richard Crockett, Vienna: How the City of Ideas Created the Modern WorldMatthias Marschik, “Wir Spielen nicht zum Vergnügen:” Arbeiterfussball NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help. Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me. Artwork for The Assistant Professor of Football is by Saige LindInstrumental music for this podcast, including the introduction track, is by the artist Ketsa and used under a Creative Commons license through Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/

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• Part 2 – The Heart of St. Pauli, or: What Should We Then Sing? Soccer Clubs, Museums, and the Work of Remembering

  This is the second part of a two-part episode - the first part is here, episode 54, from March 31.We will start at FC St. Pauli, now in the German Bundesliga, at the club’s museum which has very active researchers, and we’ll end at Real Madrid and Bayern Munich and the bigger question of what right remembering looks like in professional soccer - and what it can look like. We will take that journey with no less than 3 guests: Celina Albertz, a researcher and also in the curating team of the FC St. Pauli Museum; Sönke Goldbeck, Board chair and director of the museum, and Felipe Tobar, Assistant Professor in the Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management Department at Clemson Universit in South Carolina and founder of the Football Studies youtube channel. He is also the mastermind of a new documentary on public memory and football, which we will also talk about.Part 1  is mostly concernedwith the research on the famous St. Pauli matchday song "Das Herz von St. Pauli" ("The Heart of St. Pauli"), and the discussion started by Celina's research into the composer, lyricist and performer of that song. Part 2 funnels out from there to larger questions of soccer, research and remembering, and features Felipe more heavily.If you want to know more about FC St. Pauli and what makes the club special, especially to this podcast, listen in to episode 26, from 2023, when I talked with two social workers that are employed by the club. Felipe Tobar has also been here before, he has talked about his work and research in episode 31, last february.HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:Das Herz von St. Pauli sung in the Millerntor Stadium (YouTube video)Deutsche Welle report on the song and its roots, with Celina's researchFC St. Pauli MuseumFelipe Tobar's documentary, "The Match That not Every Club Wants to Play" (YouTube, Football Studies channel)NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help. Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me. Artwork for The Assistant Professor of Football is by Saige LindInstrumental music for this podcast, including the introduction track, is by the artist Ketsa and used under a Creative Commons license through Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/

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• Part 1 – The Heart of St. Pauli, or: What Should We Then Sing? Soccer Clubs, Museums, and the Work of Remembering

  This is the first part of a two-part episode.We will start at FC St. Pauli, now in the German Bundesliga, at the club’s museum which has very active researchers, and we’ll end at Real Madrid and Bayern Munich and the bigger question of what right remembering looks like in professional soccer - and what it can look like. We will take that journey with no less than 3 guests: Celina Albertz, a researcher and also in the curating team of the FC St. Pauli Museum; Sönke Goldbeck, Board chair and director of the museum, and Felipe Tobar, Assistant Professor in the Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management Department at Clemson Universit in South Carolina and founder of the Football Studies youtube channel. He is also the mastermind of a new documentary on public memory and football, which we will also talk about.Part 1  is mostly concernedwith the research on the famous St. Pauli matchday song "Das Herz von St. Pauli" ("The Heart of St. Pauli"), and the discussion started by Celina's research into the composer, lyricist and performer of that song. Part 2 funnels out from there to larger questions of soccer, research and remembering, and features Felipe more heavily.If you want to know more about FC St. Pauli and what makes the club special, especially to this podcast, listen in to episode 26, from 2023, when I talked with two social workers that are employed by the club. Felipe Tobar has also been here before, he has talked about his work and research in episode 31, last february.HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:Das Herz von St. Pauli sung in the Millerntor Stadium (YouTube video)Deutsche Welle report on the song and its roots, with Celina's researchFC St. Pauli MuseumFelipe Tobar's documentary, "The Match That not Every Club Wants to Play" (YouTube, Football Studies channel)NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help. Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me. Artwork for The Assistant Professor of Football is by Saige LindInstrumental music for this podcast, including the introduction track, is by the artist Ketsa and used under a Creative Commons license through Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/

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• Back to the Grassroots: The English Non-League Day on March 22nd

  If you are in England on the nice Spring weekend of March 22nd, I hope you didn’t book the trip to see a Premier League game. Because there are none. It’s a dreaded national team break again. But on the other hand, that weekend may also be one of the best to soak in English football culture, because it’s the Annual “Non-League Day," an annual, grassroots-led spotlight on non-professional football in England, a chance for those clubs to "promote the importance of affordable volunteer-led community football,"  for fans who don’t follow the big clubs across the country to show support for their local amateur side - and a chance for the educated soccer fan to look into the bottom of the English league pyramid, and find there is a lot of vibrancy, passion and sacrifices there. Today, in preparation, we are highlighting that day and the work and volunteers surrounding it, with James Doe, who founded the Non League Day in 2010 as a kind of social media experiment, and has overseen its growth to something that is now supported by the Premier League and Football League clubs, MPs, celebrities, media organisations, charities and most importantly the non-league clubs themselvesHELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:Non-League Day websiteNLD on X and InstagramThe English Football League System explained on WikipediaNEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help. Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me. Artwork for The Assistant Professor of Football is by Saige LindInstrumental music for this podcast, including the introduction track, is by the artist Ketsa and used under a Creative Commons license through Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/

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  56:58
• Rush Omnibus! Behind the Scenes on the Recent Wins for Fan Activists in the Premier League - and recent Losses in Chicago

  Note: This is an unusual episode, in reaction to the events unfolding Thursday and Friday, with little time to edit or the usual setup. All sounds fine and is audible, but not as nice as usual. My apologies!Back last Summer, many Premier League clubs announced they would change, or do away with, "concession tickets" for seniors and youth, as well as a price hike on season tickets. Resistance formed at many clubs, but at West Ham, it seemed particularly organized, creative and social media savvy. In August, I talked with Alex, a chief initiator of the #SaveOurConcessions campaign online and on matchdays, home and away, as well as with Andy Payne of Hammers United and now the club's fan advisory board about their strategy to fight back. I predicted a "Fall storm." In recent weeks, not only did Liverpool announce a price freeze, West Ham restored all concessions and also froze season tickets. Seemingly out of nowhere, right before a home game. To Andy and Alex of course, the change is the result of months of hard work. This is a look behind the curtain at how a Premier League club makes bad business decisions, how fans mobilize, and how pragmatism and solidarity, creativity and activism make a difference for local fans even in the most glitzy league in the world.Unfortunately, the counter-example of today's fan activism omnibus episode comes from Chicago, where the Chicago Red Stars of the National Women's Soccer League changed their name to "Stars" without any organized protests by an otherwise fairly organized fanscene. One lone voice from Chicago was willing to speak on the record about why that might be. HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:Hammers United website, incl. press releases and statements by the group as the protests went on (full disclosure, I signed)The club's statement, with some background from Hammers United on their website"Save Our Concessions" initial petition, with over 20,000 signatures"Black Bubble Protest" by West Ham fans away at Crystal palace (X, video)NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help. Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me. Artwork for The Assistant Professor of Football is by Saige LindInstrumental music for this podcast, including the introduction track, is by the artist Ketsa and used under a Creative Commons license through Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/

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