Football Travel by Outside Write

We talk to Montevideo-based football writer, Marcus Haydon, about watching football in one of the oldest footballing countries - Uruguay.

Safe standing - also known as 'rail seating' - has been proven to be a safe way to enable football fans to stand at matches and is at use in Celtic, Dortmund and elsewhere. 

The UK government has not allowed trials in England and Wales, but a groundswell is growing to demand change. We discuss the topic with football writer Matthew Crist. 

We look at the history of one of the biggest rivalries in international football - England v Germany - with football historian Dr. Christoph Wagner.

We discuss one of the most populated areas in Europe for football clubs - Germany's industrial heartland, the Rhineland, with groundhopper Matt Rayn.

We talk Dortmund, Gladbach, Bayer Leverkusen, Köln and a whole bunch of others.

In this episode, we discuss the clubs on Northern Spain with the Oviedo-based football journalist, Alexandra Jonson. She’s writing a book on Real Oviedo, and also tells us about the best match day experiences in a much-overlooked part of Spain.

Join us as we travel around Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque Country, checking in on famous clubs like Athletic Bilbao, Deportivo La Coruña, Real Sociedad and some of the smaller clubs.

We talk to Rich Hall, founder of Italian football-focussed site Gentleman Ultra, to get his tips on the clubs to visit in Northern Italy. We visit the usual suspects – Turin clubs Juventus and Torino; AC and Inter in Milan; Hellas and Chievo in Verona – plus some of the less-visited clubs that offer a great experience, like Atalanta, Como and Novara.

The League of Ireland has made a real effort to promote itself in recent years, and it seems to be working with crowds on the up. There’s also a wealth of talent waiting to be discovered, and you can watch a great game without breaking the bank.

We asked Dublin-based football writer Ste McGovern, content editor at The Final Third Podcast, for his tips for would-be groundhoppers looking to explore Irish club grounds.

We speak to Alan McLean from the Patrick O'Connell Memorial Fund to learn about the incredible playing and managerial career of Patrick O'Connell, whose legacy as the man who saved FC Barcelona - and other incredible achievements - was almost forgotten.

The Spanish capital is a must for any international groundhopper. In this podcast we talk to Roddy Cons from the Madrid-based vlog The Team on Tour about how to visit Real Madrid’s Estadio Bernabeu and Atlético Madrid’s Wanda Metropolitano, as well as a cluster of smaller clubs from the city.

We catch up with football journalist James Montague to discuss his travels around the Middle Eastern football scene, which he chronicled in his book "When Friday Comes: Football, War and Revolution in the Middle East.

It's a cracking episode!