What do Tottenham Hotspur, Ajax Amsterdam, Bayern Munich and Austria Vienna have in common? They all, for better, or for worse, have come to be seen as “Jew Clubs” throughout their history. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Sometimes the club embraced it, often it didn’t. "Jew Clubs" - not Jewish clubs, not founded as a Jewish sports society or anything like that. But clubs that have become a canvas for the performance of Jewishness, of antisemitism and also of philosemitism. What does that say about these clubs is one question. What does it say about Europe’s broader cultural and political discourse? That's another. What it says about Jews in those clubs is one question - what it says about how Jewishness is constructed is another.

Pavel Brunssen has written a fascinating book on it. He is a Research Associate and Alfred Landecker Lecturer at the Research Center on Antigypsyism at Heidelberg University. There are a lot of voices from fans, from media, from online discourse in this book - and it’s an academic book as well.

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Artwork for The Assistant Professor of Football is by Saige Lind

Instrumental 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/

Every time one of the big clubs show up on this humble podcast, the audience is a little larger - and maybe I should do more on the likes of Bayern or Liverpool. But I always shirk back a bit. Too mainstream, I think. And if you like Liverpool, wouldn't you have found another, more professional media outlet already? If that is you, I think you need to buy this book. And, first, hear about it: Alan McDougall has written what the subtitle says is a peoples’ history of Liverpool F.C. I would say it’s a global people’s history. Published by Cambridge University Press, the book is very readable and accessible, but with high scholarly standards. Not a straight up club history, always with an eye on culture, society and football more broadly, but never far from the club the author has grown up to love. It's a story of deindustrialization, migration, the tragedies of Heysel and Hillsborough, and Bill Shankly and Jürgen Klopp.

Alan McDougall is a professor of history at the University of Guelph in Canada, and he has been on before to talk about his fabulous older book The People’s Game about soccer in Eastern Germany. For this one, he has returned to his football home, and done what not many club histories do: a book you’ll enjoy reading, following its connections and learning about its world even if you don’t support Liverpool.

HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:

Alan McDougall, professional page

Dreams and Songs to Sing, book website

Hillsborough Law campaign

Heysel Stadium catastrophe, TV footage (warning, graphic imagery)

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 Lind

Instrumental 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/

The phrase "go west!" was not coined by the Village People or the Pet Shop Boys, but by Horace Greeley, a famous newspaper editor a long time ago. And seen from Europe, all of the United States is West. So that’s what Luca Puster tells his young European clients who just finish High School and are considering college: Go west young man, and grow up playing football. Or soccer. How do they find American colleges? What makes them come here, what is attractive about this step in their football and study careers? How do they find the game here, the current crisis around immigration and politics, what do they take back?

Luca is the co-founder of Students Go West, an agency that helps bring European footballers into American collegiate soccer programs. He also played for the GAK in Graz, Austria, and for Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida.

HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:

Students Go West, website

Percentages of international players in the top NCAA teams, 2023

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 Lind

Instrumental 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/