Soccer 101

On today's episode, Graham and Taylor delve deep into season tickets: what are they, what are the benefits and drawbacks to becoming a season ticket holder, how has the process evolved over time, and what does the future hold? All that and much much more, including annoying Graham early and often.

Graham (who managed to keep his top on the whole show) and Taylor answer the following listener question: Taking a shirt off is an iconic football celebration. Except that for a good long while now it has been punished with a yellow card. Why? What harm does it cause? Who pushed for the rule change? What, why, how, huh? We answer those questions and a few more! Plus, our favorite shirtless celebrations.

With the 2023 iteration of The Concacaf Gold Cup right around the corner, Graham and Taylor discuss the history of the competition, how it has evolved over time, the various guest nations that have played, and the most successful teams to participate. Plus, why does it seem less important these days (and why that's likely a temporary thing), and what its future will look like ahead of the 2026 World Cup. All that and more!

The season is coming to a close, which means the silly season insanity is about to ratchet up! But instead of looking at specific rumors or pending transfers, they're discussing the speculation itself. How does transfer speculation come to be? Who and what are the trustworthy sources of transfer news? Why are we (meaning football fans in general) so fascinated with transfer gossip? All that and much much more on today's episode of Soccer 101!

Graham and Taylor discuss all-things Australia, without attempting to do accents or make jokes about shrimp and barbies. Instead, they focus on The A-League Men: the history of the league, how it has evolved, why it rebranded, current controversies, and future growth possibilities.

I joined my buddy Elliot Barr on his podcast Can I Kick it, and we went way way over time. So, we split our chat into two segments. Part 1 is available over on their feeds and Part 2 is available over here. We covered a lot of bases, with the primary focus on what different leagues around the world have done to combat racism, and whether or not it's succeeding.

On this episode, Graham and Taylor delve deep into an increasingly common setup: multi-club ownership. Along the way, they answer questions like... What is the difference between a selling club, a feeder club and a sister club? What are the most and least prominent examples of multi-club setups? Why are club networks becoming more common? What are the issues inherent to owning multiple teams? And ultimately, are they good or bad for world football?

As a logical counterpoint to last week's Promotion special, this week we're tackling Relegation! What sort of damage can relegation cause? How do relegated teams respond to dropping down a division? What does relegation change for fans? All that and much more!

This week, Graham and Taylor dive into one of the happier things that can happen to a club: promotion! What are the approaches to getting promoted and then staying up, what are the obvious benefits and the less obvious drawbacks, what changes from the fan perspective, and much much more!

With Graham thoroughly enjoying his 4th cancellation of the season courtesy of Dumbarton, we discuss why a match might be postponed, who makes the decision, what happens after the decision is made, and much more!