Football Weekly is a
podcast
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...
about
football produced by ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' newspaper in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
. It was first broadcast in 2006. It reviews the latest football results and news, and previews forthcoming matches. While focused on the
Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...
and English football more broadly, the show pays significant attention to football across Europe, paying particular attention to
La Liga
The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...
,
Serie A
The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...
and the
Bundesliga
The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...
.
Originally provided weekly—as its name suggests—Football Weekly, as of 2021, broadcasts three times a week during the European football season.
The original episode release day was Monday, after the weekend's fixtures, and since 2007 a second weekly podcast, ''Football Weekly Extra'', has aired on Thursdays to review midweek action and preview the next weekend's matches. A third weekly episode published on Tuesdays or Wednesdays has been produced since June 2020,
typically either focusing on news from non-British European leagues, or providing space for extended discussions of particular topics.
History
The podcast began on 11 May 2006 as ''The World Cup Show'', produced daily throughout the
2006 World Cup
The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...
, and returned during the season under its new name on 29 August 2006, due to popular demand. During
European Championships and
World Cups
A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...
, the podcast has aired daily.
The show was originally presented by
James Richardson, with contributions by various ''
Guardian'' journalists and freelance correspondents, most regularly
Barry Glendenning. Richardson and journalist Iain Macintosh left in July 2017 for a new rival podcast, ''
The Totally Football Show
''The Totally Football Show'' presented by James Richardson is a thrice weekly podcast about association football produced by Muddy Knees Media. From June 15, 2020 it was incorporated into and also available via The Athletic. It regularly featur ...
''. Richardson was replaced by
Max Rushden
Max Paul Rushden (born 18 April 1979) is an English radio and television presenter and the current host of ''The Guardian''s ''Football Weekly'' podcast.
Rushden's first presenting role was BBC London 94.9's breakfast show from December 2006 to ...
.
Rushden explains that the show "ranges from proper analysis of what has happened on the pitch in the UK and around Europe, to commentary about serious issues off it, balanced with some complete nonsense." Speaking in the wake of the 2018 World Cup, the ''Guardian's'' head of sport called the podcast "a brand leader despite plenty of opposition including from the ''
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
''. It is one of our greatest multimedia successes." Since the late 2010s, the programme has paid greater attention to women's football, giving more frequent segments and occasional dedicated episodes to the women's game.
In April 2008 Football Weekly was nominated for Sports Programme of the Year in the annual
– the UK's main national radio awards. In 2018 the
awarded ''Football Weekly'' the ''Podcast of the Year'' for the second year running and the fifth time in the last six years. ''
'' called the show "one of the big beasts of football podcasting".
Other occasional contributors include Jim Burke, Andy Hunter, Gregg Bakowski,
. James, Oatley and Carruthers are occasional guest hosts in the absence of Rushden, while MacInnes is a previous guest host of the show.
Lowe, Rhind-Tutt and Wrack will typically only appear to discuss matters pertaining to, respectively, Spanish, German and women's football. While also appearing on regular shows, in podcasts specifically themed around European football, Auclair and Bandini are the respective regular experts on the French and Italian game.