Libero

Now that the Club World Cup is over, Libero’s Miguel Delaney, James Horncastle and Rory Smith discuss what Gianni Infantino’s great jamboree means for football: not just the Saudi money that (indirectly) bankrolled the tournament, but the impetus of American private equity that brought it to this point. Before that, though, they unpack the defining image of the tournament, and possibly all modern football: President Donald Trump ma...

Jonathan Wilson and Miguel Delaney discuss with John Brewin a big week for Arsenal, and a fever dream featuring one of the Gunners’ potential new strikers. Is the pressure on Mikel Arteta or is that just a perception created by the myth of managers being capable of dragging a team over 'the line', whatever that is?

Also, (36:14) if Joe Root sat in the seat next to you in a pub, would you recognise the greatest living English cr...

On today’s episode Jack Pitt-Brooke, James Horncastle and Rory Smith discuss the Club World Cup, where James saw the start of the tournament, with Rory now in New York to see its climax. They ask whether this is the future of football, or just a very clear view of its present.

Then conversation returns to last week’s question (27:05): what could threaten football’s dominant place in global culture? Could it be a threat from...

This episode was recorded before the tragic news about the death of Diogo Jota and his brother.

Jack Pitt-Brooke, Rory Smith and, eventually (18:41), James Horncastle try to get their heads around the sheer size of modern football. What happened to other sports? What special advantage does football have over everything else? And what is it about football that has allowed it to become the dominant cultural force in the modern wor...

Can women’s football sustain its exponential growth? Have the men just had a sliding doors without knowing it? The Women’s Euro 2025 gets underway in Switzerland this week with England nursing both (relatively) high hopes and (comparatively) low expectations. Why have two key players withdrawn from the squad? Can England retain their crown? What will failing to do so mean for Sarina Wiegman? And, if tournaments are always a baromet...

On today’s Libero, Jack Pitt-Brooke, Tariq Panja and John Brewin ask the big question of the summer so far: who is John Textor? And what is going on with the ownership of Lyon and Crystal Palace? Lyon used to be one of Europe’s model clubs but now they are facing the prospect of relegation to Ligue 2. What does this tell us, not only about Textor, but about the multi-club model in general? Is there any upside at all in it for clubs...

Another summer, another tournament enlivened by marauding hordes of Argentina fans taking over beaches and shopping centres. On today’s Libero, Miguel Delaney, Rory Smith and Jonathan Wilson discuss what it is that makes Argentinian football culture so passionate and so appealing to outsiders, whether we overlook the reality of it in favour of the romance, and whether its allure is really a measure of our anxiety over the sanitised...

Here we go, right into transfer season, so Miguel Delaney, Rory Smith and Jonathan Wilson discuss how it all actually works from a media perspective, as well as how reporting on it has evolved into an entire industry of its own, an adjunct to the actual football. We also (38:06), aware of our own hypocrisy, discuss an actual big transfer: Florian Wirtz to Liverpool.

Produced by: Tom Bassam

Email in at liberopodcast0@gmail.com

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Libero goes on location as James Horncastle reports from the Hard Rock Stadium after Boca Juniors v Benfica. Is our Italian stallion getting swept up by Gianni Infantino’s Club World Cup? Then, back across the Atlantic where John Brewin, Miguel Delaney and Tariq Panja share their thoughts on the tourney so far, where they’re watching on a channel better known for serial killer documentaries. 

Then, at (24:36), they start th...

It’s Club World Cup time, and Libero are just as excited as you are. Today, Miguel Delaney, John Brewin and Rory Smith discuss how this tournament came to be, and what its existence tells us about the power (im)balance of world football. In the second half (38:18), they discuss what the tournament might bring as a sporting spectacle: for all the misgivings over how it came about, will it produce any football worth watching? And is ...

On today’s episode James Horncastle, Jonathan Wilson and Tariq Panja discuss Luciano Spalletti’s shock (is it?) departure as Italy boss and what bigger meaning does it point to about that state of the Azzurri. Before moving on to the status of the Nations League and asking whether the competition finally hit the big time? Or is it just another needless extra in football’s bursting-at-the seams calendar? 

In part two (2...

Today Jack Pitt-Brooke, James Horncastle and Rory Smith discuss the most wonderful time of the year: the transfer market between football executives. They ask why we have become so fascinated by sporting directors, and why some of them have become almost as famous as the players themselves.

James explains the history of the role in Italy, and Rory and Jack try to work out when and why it finally became a big part of the Premier ...

With Paris Saint-Germain finally ending their cash soaked Qatari quest for a Champions League title John Brewin, Jonathan Wilson and Tariq Panja discuss how its likeable young team’s emphatic trouncing of Inter may have shielded the owners from the sort of scrutiny they should have received. They get it here. 

In part two (36:38), discussion turns to the Club World Cup and what FIFA’s game is with a competition that few had...

Brought to you live from the Allianz Arena Munich Football Arena, Miguel Delaney and Rory Smith discuss the fallout from PSG's destruction of Inter Milan in the Champions League final.

Produced by: Tom Bassam

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Today on Libero Jack Pitt-Brooke, Rory Smith and James Horncastle look forward to Saturday’s Champions League final between Paris Saint Germain and Inter Milan.

First up is the question of what actually makes for a good Champions League final, whether we ever get what we really want from these games, and whether there being no English team, Real Madrid or Barcelona makes this final a tough sell to English viewers. Does this make...

As European domestic seasons draw to their close, Jonathan Wilson, John Brewin and Tariq Panja consider how and why a different set of clubs have lifted trophies across Europe. They discuss the collapse of the pay-TV market in France to suggest not all is milk and honey within the global game. Has football finance’s growth in importance turned us all into reluctant accountants? (28:58) And, as the Champions League final in Munich b...

Dispatches from Libero's Bilbao Bureau bring word of an all-English European final that was not the greatest advert for the 'Best League in the World™', so instead James Horncastle, John Brewin and Rory Smith discuss the Italian perspective on football in 2025 and how Serie A lost its status as the premier domestic competition. (30:38) We also learn how a restaurant catering to Hull's theatre crowd led Horncastle to a career coveri...

Jack Pitt-Brooke, Jonathan Wilson and Miguel Delaney have crossed the Bay of Biscay to see the teams currently 16th and 17th in the Premier League duke it out in the Basque Country with not only Europe's second biggest prize on the line, but also a place in the Champions League. Up front, Libero's intrepid trio of travellers mull over the plotlines for Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, and their respective coaches. We also find...

On today’s Libero, Jonathan Wilson, Jack Pitt-Brooke and Miguel Delaney start by looking forward to Saturday’s FA Cup final. Everyone knows that the final is no longer the climax of the English football season, but the big question is why? They look at the rising prominence of the league in the 1980s, the advent of the Premier League in 1992 and Manchester United’s decision to pull out in 2000.

The following Saturday at Wembley ...