Annette van Soest and Mathieu Segers talk about football as a political tool and as a European affair just before the start of the World Cup in Qatar. Together with Simon Kuper, Financial Times journalist and author of several football books, they look at the social and political significance of Europe’s favourite sport. An episode on “the power of the ball.”
Recommendations from this episode:
- Register now for free for our End of Year show at poppodium PAARD on 19 December;
- Simon Kuper recommends ‘A waiter in Paris’ by Edward Chisholm;
- Simon Kuper’s book ‘Soccernomics’ is now available as a special 2022 World Cup edition;
- Mathieu recommends ‘Postwar: a history of Europe since 1945’ by Tony Judt;
- Annette tips the ZDF documentary ‘Geheimsache Katar’;
- Chief editor Freek Ewals recommends the NRC podcast series ‘De coup van Qatar’, created by Joris Kooiman;
- Freek also recommends the book ‘Barça: The rise and fall of the club that built modern football’ by Simon Kuper.
— disclaimer — the podcast Café Europa is only available in Dutch
Collaboration with Haagsch College
We make the podcast Café Europa together with our partner Haagsch College. Haagsch College is an initiative of Freek Ewals (former BNR Nieuwsradio) and Vincent Rietbergen (former NOS). They produce substantive productions such as theater tours with Rutger Bregman, Joris Luyendijk and Thomas Erdbrink. And in-depth live streams and podcasts about current events.

Photo credit banner picture: History of Soccer