Podcasts by Forza Futbol

In today's podcast Elisa, Mando and Ravi welcome Eduardo Perez Suarez "Edu" one of the founders of La Lambretta radio. You may reach him at @LaLambretta on twitter. We went old school in this podcast going around the league starting with Sporting and Levante. You may also hear him on www.oidradio.es in La Lambretta and Aqui hay pelotas.

Sporting - 15 min

1. Current situation of Sporting from both sporting and financial aspects?
2. Can Sportiing make a purchase in Jan if needed?
3. Are there are any gems in the cantera of Sporting that might help?
4. Why are teams like Sporting not producing gems like David Villa anymore?
5. Is it better to set some rules like in UK where kids can only go the academies in their region?

Levante - 17 min

1. Can Levante keep up the rythm? What is the secret of their success, if there is any?
2. Are Levante dirty? - The fine line between gamesmanship and being dirty.
3. Impact of the media on the over-scrutiny fouls and physical play that isnt necessarily rough or dirty.

Financial problems, Management style and the curious case of Racing ownership - 7 min

1. What happened to financial problems of La Liga? why dont people talk about them anymore?
2. The Racing issue - Do you know that Ali Sayeed who is on the run from Interpol still owns the majority stake at Racing Santander?
3. Is the English style of Manager better and the way going forward in Spain?

Villarreal, Valencia - 9 min

1. What is the truth in Benitez to Villarreal rumours?
2. Is the criticism of Unai by the Valencia fans justified?
3. Cagna to coach Villarreal if Garrido were to let go?

Atlético problems - 9 min

1. The troubles of Manzano at Atlético
2. Too many changes, adaptation issues
3. Raúl García and Ibrahima lighting it up at Osasuna after leaving Atlético
4. Is Bernd Schuster next in line at Atlético?

Espanyol - Pocchetino, the importance of a having a 'home'guy at the helm

The Radios v MediaPro issues - 7min

1. The suspicious sponsorships by Doyen Group of all
2. Coaches having a lot of players from the same agent as theirs
3. Do coaches get kick-backs for player signings?

The suspicious sponsors - Doyen Group - 7min

1. Doyen group sponsoring Getafe, Atlético and Sporting
2. El País ran story that this is more than a mere sponsor. It is an investment fund to buy players
3. Is this another road leading to a disaster?

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Elisa, Mando and Ravi welcomed Chris Clements of the wonderful and informative blog Estadios de Fútbol en España. The site has a lot of information about the majority of the stadiums in Spain. La Liga, Segunda and even further down. Chris descrbes how he got into this hobby and his modus operandi of getting the information about the stadiums.

Agenda : Stadiums in Spain, Audience, tickets etc.. 52 minutes.

1. Top 5 stadiums in Spain
2. The uniqueness of San Mames and other structures similar to it
3. The story of the arch at the San Mames.
4. The modus operandi and inspiration for Chris's interest in stadiums of Spain
5. Compare stadiums in Spain to those in UK
6. The Bernabeu, the Camp Nou and the Cornella
7. The away fan culture in UK and the lack of it in Spain
8. Attendances in UK
9. The Municipal stadiums and the multi-use stadiums
10. Attendances in Spain
11. Ticket prices in Spain - areas where La Liga can improve to get better attendances and filling the stadiums.
12. Stadiums in the Segunda and the lower leagues. Special mention to Carlos Tartiere of Real Oviedo

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Elisa and Ravi talked to Jorge Zuazola of Spanish leadership . Jorge is an author of many books including "Ballfoot v Football: The Spanish Leadership maestros - The reinventors of the game invented by the English" about some offbeat topics.

Agenda

Segment#1 : Elisa & Ravi on La Liga & Spanish NT : 27 min

• Look back at Spanish final qualifiers against Czech Republic & Scotland.
• The EPL trident Silva-Torres-Mata & the Silva False 9 experiment
• Look ahead to the La Liga games (of last week)

Segment #2: Interview with Jorge Zuazola of Spanish Leadership : 50 min

• The current generation of Spanish players and coaches and the emerging dominance of the Spanish 'style' of football
• Should more Spanish players and coaches go abroad ? why? There was a lot of dicussion around this subject.
• Barcelona and Spain style are so similar - is this really why Real Madrid choose a different path?
• The emerging phenomenon of players of mixed origin like Amoribieta, Thiago Alcantara
• The likely Spanish squad for Euros
• And much more

To end, we also discussed about the new head coach of US national team, Jurgen Klinnsmann

We hope you enjoy this podcast! Please give us your feedback.

Cheers! ¡¡¡¡Viva el Fútbol!!!! ¡¡¡¡Viva España!!!!

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In a very special podcast interview, Elisa and Ravi had the pleasure of talking to Fernando Palomo (@Palomo_ESPN) one of the main football commentator and analyst at ESPN Deportes. You would have heard his voice on Sports Center, Fuera de Juego and scores of live games he called over the years.

We had Fernando on for almost an hour and we were able to get a lot of questions in, including a few fan questions. We thank Fernando for this time on a busy FIFA match day. Listen carefully there were some great quotes and ancedotes.

1. Did you know that Fernando represented El Salvador in track and field (Javelin) at World Championships?

2. Did you know that Barcelona is not the favourite team of Fernando? we know everyone thinks it is based on his call of "that" Iniesta goal at Stamford bridge.

And many more bits of information.

Agenda

Background

1. Fernando's story.

2. How did you get into sports journalism and then ESPN Deportes ?

TV stuff

3. How is it like working with Mario Kempes - I really love his simple and brilliant insights into the game

4. Which clubs or games have the best ratings for La Liga?

- Which clubs/games are the best other than the clasicos?

5. How does thet La Liga game ratings compare to EPL or Serie A game ratings

6. Over the years has the popularity of La Liga grown on ESPN Deportes?

7. Problems La Liga is facing

8. If yoou fix 2 things about La Liga, which two problems would you fix and why?

9. How is it working with Martin Aistein in Madrid?

10. How did you get Mr. Chip on Fuera de Juego?

11. Is anything special planned for the coverage of Clásico this year?

12. We saw you switch to English (as a sideline reporter) during the World football Challenge. While we are lucky that we speak Spanish, the english only audience are somewhat starved of the kind of analysis and insights we get on Spanish broadcasts. Will you be making more appearances in English in the future?

13. Best call that Fernando has made on a goal so far and the reasons behind it. This is one of those things,one can never imagine unless you know about it.

Current La Liga season.

14. Your views on the la liga season so far

- 3 teams doing really well and better than expected

- 3 teams doing worse than expected

- Which new players impressed you so far?

15. Cristiano - Messi debate

At the end we have add a special audio of Fernando's favourite call. You might have heard it before but don't miss it anyway.

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