1. Atleti beats Athletic to win the Europa League

2. Relegation battle

3. Unai goes to Russia

4. Zaragoza is out of Administration!!

5. Financial woes of big private firms in Spain

We hope you enjoy this podcast.

1. Real Madrid, the new champions

2. Athletic vs Atleti Europa League final

3. Relegation battle and the battle for the European spots. We hope you enjoy this podcast. Please do write us your feedback

1. Intro

2. What is your impression of the season far:

3. What do you expect from both coaches in the clasico line-up - formations, surprises, players etc.

4. 3 key players in your side & the opposition (matchups)

5. If RM win Liga & Barça win Champions, do the fans of each team consider it a successful season?

6. Will Mou &/or Pep leave their job at the end of the season? If either of them do, who do you expect to replace them?

7. Predictions for the Clasico, Liga & CL

Listeners, please bear with us, the abrupt ending at the end of the podcast. We tried our best but couldnt fix the issue.

1. Intro, how they got into following la liga and built the site

2. Title race getting closer; Can barca pull it off
3.  CL race/talk
4.  Europa League Talk: Who is going to win Europa League?
4b 5/8 teams in Europe from Spain, what does that say about the league?
4c 752M owed to the tax man what does that say about the league?
5. 3d party ownership becoming very big in liga
6 Who do you think is going to leave their club this summer? Name two or three (Transfer talk)
> 7. Predictions for league cl relegation Europa league etc

Agenda

1. How do u rate the Betis-Sevilla rivalry?

2. Analyzing the streaky nature of the season of Betis

3. The atmosphere at Real Betis – Real Madrid

4. Can Betis stay up?

5. What are the changes and new players/canteranos you might see next few years?       – Pozuelo    – Vadillo    – Carlos García    – Sergio Rodriguez

6. Real Betis finances

7. Ticket prices, kick-offs and other La Liga issues.

We chatted about the MLS, the recent win of US over Italy, the upcoming Euro 2012, SPain’s chances and some La Liga topics. Enjoy the great insights of Alexi. You may give him feedback directly at @AlexiLalas or  leave a comment here.

Forzafutbol thanks Alexi for spending time to do this interview.

Duration - 20 min

Agenda

1. Growth of MLS in the past 10 years 2. Can you compare the usage of analytics during your playing career to nowadays? 3. What is the best way to bridge the gap between how the coaches scheme & gameplan for games and the numbers and stats that the analytics geeks produce? 4. Favorite team outside of US? 5. Who are you rooting for in Euro 2012 6. Do you watch spanish football? 7. if yes, which is your favorite 8. What do you think La Liga needs to do get the better audience in the US? 9. Cristano vs Messi 10. Real Madrid vs Barça 11. Mourinho vs Pep Guardiola

On today´s episode of Forza Futbol we have Graham Hunter back on with us to talk about his recently published book Barça: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World from BackPage Press Limited. We talk about Cruyff´s years at Barcelona as a player and his subsequent return as coach of the Dream Team. We follow Joan Laporta´s rise, Ronaldinho´s glory and his surprising role as mentor to Lionel Messi, and the machinations that oversaw the managerial change from Frank Rijkaard to favorite son Pep Guardiola.

Agenda

1. The Cinderella story of Mirandes 2. Barça - Valencia: Valencia’s trouble with lack of creativity in the midfield 3. Barça X Athletic Copa final 4. The Striker dilemma for Spain - What if Villa cant make it? 5. The woes of Sevilla. Can Michel save them? 6. Preciado gone. Can Sporting survive? 7. Are there any other coaches on the chopping block before the end of the season?

We welcome back Eduardo Alvarez of ESPNSoccernet.com to do a La Liga round-up, the transfer window happenings and much more. Eduardo writes the weekly quiniela column on ESPNSoccernet.com and contributes for Radio Marca of Spain and blogs for Esporte Interativo of Brasil. You may follow the “only trilingual spanish football commentator” on Twitter at @EdAlvarezSpain

Agenda :

0. Transfer window deals - best & worst 1. The state of La Liga. Do you feel the league is less competitive? Why? 2. The race for 3rd and 4th. Are Valencia, Athletic, Atletico and Malaga Champions League material? 3. What do you think will happen at Zaragoza? 4. The story of Mirandes 5. Are you surprised by Barça’s away form and why? 6. Do you think Mou will stay another year at Madrid? 7. Who is the most improved player for you this year? 8. Who is the revelation of the year? 9. How are you Quinela predictions coming along?

And a lot more interesting stuff.

Thanks

1. Segunda vs Primera - what is the difference?

2. Candidates for promotion to Primera

3. The excitement brought out by the play-off system for the last promotion spot.

4. What are the suprise teams in Segunda this season?

5. The biggest disappointments of this season.

6. The story of Mirandes - Pablo Infante, the Pichichi of Copa del Rey.

7. What are the biggest problems in Segunda division?

8. Lack of exposure to the Segunda clubs beyond Spain

9.  Arch’s candidates for relegation and promotion

10. Copa del Rey recap

Duration 55 min

1. How did you get into stats?

2. Which stats are intrinsic to La Liga

3. Impact of Barça & Madrid’s numbers on overall stats of La Liga

4. How do you differentitate between good stats and manipulated stats?

5. How and where do you get your data from?

6. Whar are thats stats you look at to rate GKs, defenders. midfielders and strikers?

7. Why is rating midfielders so hard?

8. Who is the best crosser in La Liga (you will be surprised by the answer.)

9. Do Premier League teams rely more on stats analysis than La Liga teams?

10. MediaPro has its own package called MediaCoach which they are trying to make all teams use it

11. Coaches tapes

12. Best performers of La Liga - GKs, defenders, midfielders, strikers

13. La Liga talk & predictions

7.

1. Villarreal - 17 min

• Season
• Financial results
• Molina hire
• Valencia game  - positives, negatives
• Molina’s challenges

2. Financial state of La Liga - 16 min

• No money across the league for winter transfer window
• Overall revenues of all teams except Real Madrid and FC Barcelona are flat - about 7 teams including Champions League and Europa League entrants Valencia, Villarreal, Atlético, Sevilla have no sponsors
• New government and changes to the tax laws : “Beckham law” going away?
• Who will be the most affected by changes to the Beckham law?
• Will there be an exodus of Spanish stars to other leagues like EPL?
• Teams under tremendous pressure to pay wages on time for players
• The different strategies of survival employed by La Liga clubs

3. The mysterious Doyen Group and other similar 3rd party ownership schemes - 14 min

• Increasing influence of Super agents like Jorge Mendes
• Lack of oversight on the part of LFP to oversee these
• Granada’s curious relationship with Udinese
• The limitations and disadvantages of the multitude of the provincial clubs in Spain
• Is SAD (Sociedad Anonima Deportiva aka Limited Liability Co) the root cause

4. Valencia’s deal with Bankia -13 min

• How does the deal work?
• Does this attract more foreign owners or investors to buy them?
• What does a foreign investment group look for in a club to make an investment decision?

We hope you enjoy this podcast. You may find and archive of all our podcasts at iTunes or  Podbean

Duration : 65 min

1. Intros and how each of the gentlemen have become ‘pericos’

2. Impressions on the season so far, positives, concerns etc.

3. Financial health of the club. Espanyol board said they need 8mil to balance the books. Will there be some player sales in January?

4. Will the good showing of youngsters like Thievy, Weiss and Alvaro continue in the 2nd half of the season? Are there any concerns?

5. What do you make of Alvaro’s performance so far?

6. Any upcoming players that we need to look out for?

7. The Derby  - How will the game play out? Does Espanyol have a chance?

8. Predictions for the Derby

9. Predictions for the season finish

10. Espanyol’s chances in the Copa del Rey

11. The loyalty and the importance of Pochetino to Espanyol

12. Can Pocchetino be the Sir Alex of Espanyol?

Elisa and Ravi had the pleasure of talking to one of the most popular english writers of Spanish football, Tim Stannard aka @LaLigaLoca.

Tim is based in Madrid contributing regularly to FourFourTwo Magazine with the daily La Liga Loca blog and Football365.com, as well as featuring in When Saturday Comes and UEFA Champions League magazine. He also works as a TV producer for a football show and has an intense dislike for Flamenco music and chickpeas. Contactable by email at laligaloca@yahoo.co.uk

Topics: Duration 60 min.

1. Clasico - aftermath

- did you expect it to go the way it transpired?

- do u think Madrid can beat Barça in any of the future clasicos of this season?

- Cristiano’s funk against Barça - what is your theory on it?

- Mourinho - what do you think of him after 1.5 years? Has his aura diminished a bit due to the clasico losses?

- Should he win Copa or La Liga and not Champions League, will he stay for 3rd year?

2. Back in October, there was some noise about the new stadium plans of Barça & Madrid - will they just become even more stronger and the gap widen?

- Atleti’s stadium move plans

3. What do you think of Mourinho playing Pedro Mendes (Jorge Mendes’ son) in the Champions League, on loan from Sporting and not even a starter in defense at Castilla?

- Are they trying to pump his value before selling him for a higher price?

4. What do you think of the Jorge Mendes effect on Real Zaragoza, Real Madrid and Atletico?

5. What is going on with Reyes? Can you pinpoint the main issue at Atleti?

6. Can you give our listeners a summary of the Del Nido court case in Malaga?

7. What do u think of Bankia’s deal to give further loan to Valencia and waive off its huge debt in return for property?

8. What do you think about the Málaga project?

9. What is your take on the Villa injury? How would you describe his relationship with Pep and Messi prior to the injury?

10. The Marca/As shenanigans

11. Do you see Madrid or Barça signing anyone in the winter transfer window?

10. Do you like the noon kickoffs?

11. Villarreal - Garrido

12. Predictions for La Liga

- Relegation

- La Liga, Copa, Champions League and the Euro Cup 2012

13. Spain

- Torres situation

- Will Raúl be back in the Spain set-up?

14. the “Guti” phenomenon

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Here is Tim’s article on fourfourtwo.com about Del Nido that he mentioned at the end of the podcast Past catches up with Del Nido

Talking to Madrid & Barça fans about the Clásico is always fun

It is never too late to review a clásico. The initial emotions have subsided and have given way to a colder, analytical and holistic views on the subject. Mando and Elisa had the pleasure of welcoming Ramzi from @footballmood who gave his unique Blaugrana perspective. Elisa played the Madridista part.

1. Impressions of the game from both perspectives

2. Were you surprised by either lineups? - Explain

3. After knowing the line-ups and before the game started did you expect what unfolded?

- If yes, why?

- If not, what went wrong?

4. What are the positives you can take from this game?

5. Everyone, including Pep(based on his presser) seemed to have expected a closer game

- what went wrong Madrid?

- Is there something that Madrid or Mou can do to arrest this trend vs Barça?

- In the short-term : this season (return fixture, possibly CdR & UCL)

- In the long-term : next season

6. What is the near-term impact of this loss on Madrid & Barça?

7. Will either club buy more players in the January timeline?

8. Predictions on who will win the Liga, CdR & UCL

9. Prediction for the World Club Cup? Can Santos surprise Barça?

Elisa and Ravi had the pleasure to welcome back one of our favourite guests, Vaishali Bhardwaj, a sports journalist writing for @FourFourTwo and a lot more. Vaishali also co-hosts @BeyondthePitch’s World Football Minute and produce/present the @roundupshow on @BreakLondon Radio. More on Vaishali’s website and follow her on twitter @VaiBhardwaj

Duration 39 min

1. How is La Liga viewed in UK overall? 2. How is the current La Liga season perceived over there? 3. TV coverage of La Liga in UK 4. How Popular is La Liga in England? 5. La Liga season - the biggest surprises 6. Best upcoming and outstanding players of this season 7. The failed move of Kevin Gameiro to Valencia ” 8. Predictions for La Liga, Copa and UCL - pre & post clasico if they have changed 9. Benzema vis-a-vis Les Bleus 10. The exodus of talented Spanish players to the EPL - Torres, Mata, Silva, Romeu and more. 11. What is the biggest challenge for Spanish players in England? Why some of them fail like Reyes, Tevez 12.Spanish striker-crisis

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We have 2 DVDs of ‘El Clásico’ to give away for our listeners. Please listen to the podcast for the details.

Kelly and Devin talk about the motivation and their experiences in making this film.

1. Impressions of the Barça and Madrid seasons so far - 15 min 2. Approach of both teams to the Clásico - 32 min

- Barcelona : 4-3-3 or 3-4-3 or 3-5-2?

- Real Madrid: Trivote or 4-2-3-1?

- Individual match-ups

More questions and predictions - 30 min

3. If you were to pick one player from the other side into yours, who will it be and why? - (no Messi or Ronaldo ) 4. Which player from the other side you’d rather not see him play the clasico? - (no Messi or Ronaldo, again) 5. Predictions - - Clasico - League - CL - CdR 7. If Real Madrid win the Clasico, is the title race over? 8. Should Madrid win the League and Barça win the CL, will it be considered a successful season at either club?

Here is a summary of the topics discussed.

Segment 1 - 31 min

1. Impressions on Valencia’s season so far. 2. Best and worst signings of the summer. - Victor Ruíz, Adil Rami, Diego Alves - Dani Parejo, Pablo Piatti 3. What happened with Parejo & Piatti 4. Isco’s exit 5. 2-Goalkeeper system - Does it work or not? - Guaíta & Diego Alves 6. Finances of Valencia and the shape of the future of the club 7. The impact of the debt on Valencia, updates on Nou Mestalla, the sale of the old stadium 8. The rumours of a Chinese group trying to buy Valencia - Any truth to it? 9. Best and worst games of Valencía so far 10.Valencia’s playing style, Emery’s tactics 4231 vs 433..etc 11.The boo-birds at the Mestalla - Los llorones

Segment 2 - The all important Champions League game vs Chelsea + La Liga Title Race - 29 min

1. The approach of Valencia to this game. 2. Form of the two teams 3. Is Valencia better than Chelsea? 4. Title race 5. Can Valencia keep up with Barça till the end of the season? 6. Real Madrid v Barça - Who will win the league? 7. Can Valencia win the league again in the near future? 8. Cesar & Kyle’s predictions for the season, Champions League amd Copa del Rey

Forzafutbol podcasts on iTunes

An early christmas gift for all our listeners. We had the pleasure of talking to the genius on GOL TV USA, Mr. Ray Hudson. Ray’s passion for football is well known and it was a pleasure to talk to him one on one and he showed the same passion on the podcast. We touched upon the following topics.

Ray’s playing career and his early days in the US - 13 min 1. Ray’s move from Newscastle to Ft.Lauderdale Strikers of NASL 2. Career at Fort. Lauderdale Strikers 3. why did the NASL fold? 4. Klinnsmann’s appointment as US head coach 5. If Ray were a midfielder today, who would it be? You will love the answer for this.

Ray’s coaching career - 11min 1. Miami Fusion days 2. The story of Barça’s attempt to set-up an MLS franchise in Miami 3. DC United days

Ray’s broadcasting career - 10 min 1. How did it start? 2. What Ray’s likes most about broadcasting 3. Which is the best game(s) Ray has called?

La Liga - 18 min 1. Impressions of the season so far 2. Real Madrid 3. Barça and El Clásico 4. Who will win the League and the Champions League 5. Munaín, Athletic and Bielsa 6. Top players 7. Favorite coaches 8. Where does La Liga stack with the rest 9. TV rights, marketing etc..

We thank Ray and GOL TV USA for giving the great opportunity. We hope all the listeners enjoy this podcast. Subscribe to listen to all of our podcasts here on iTunes



For the first time on Forzafutbol we had the pleasure of inviting a couple of media personalities from Scandinavia. We are pleased to welcome Johanna Gara, a football journalist at Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet and La Liga expert on TV4, a Swedish national TV channel. Johanna lived in Barcelona and covered Zlatan’s stay at Barça and offers some great insights into Zlatan and a lot of things in his autobiography. You may follow Johanna on twitter @johannagara.

We extend a warm welcome also to Petter Veland, La Liga-expert for the Norwegian TV-channel CANAL+. Petter watches all the 380 matches from La Liga per season. For Petter Granada - Racing is as interesting as Real Madrid - Barça. An out and out La Liga fan and specifically a Villarrea fan. [the groguets are the best, as you all know by now ]. Petter is very active on twitter and all his tweets are about La Liga. You may follow him at @PetterVeland.

Elisa and Ravi discussed a range of topics with Johanna and Petter.

Segment #1 - 31 min

1. How is La Liga viewed and perceived in Norway & Sweden
2. Which league is the most watched league there?
3. How many La Liga games are televised in Norway/Sweden? How many networks carry them?
4. Who is most supported team (apart from Madrid and Barça)?
5. Betweem Madrid & Barça who is more popular?
6. How Biesla’s move to Athletic piqued interest about Athletic in Norway
7. The impact of Swedish & Norwegian players like Henrik Larsson and John Carew playing in La Liga and the teams supported
8. Recent trend of people disliking Barça or complain about Jose Mourinho
9. Who well Spain is supported over there.
10. Penyas in Norway and Sweden
11. CANAL+ Norway’s interview of Del Nido and the reaction
12. Predictions of Petter & Johanna for La Liga and Johanna

Segment #2 - Zlatan book & the season so far 33 min

1. The Zlatan book
2. How Zlatan tried to be a part of Barça system - “Why did you buy a Ferrari and use it like a fiat?”
3. Does the current issue with Villa have a parallel to the Zlatan issue?
4. The other parts of the Zlatan book - Ibra’s chidhood
5. How Ibra got to Ajax.
6. How does he find Italy comfortable?
7. The Ibra-Oguchi Onyewu skirmish at Milan
8. The childish demeanour of Ibra
9. Reaction to Ibra’s book in Norway & Sweden - The love and hate relationship of Zlatan with people
10. Johanna’s 1-on-1 interviews with Cesc Fabregas and Andrés Iniesta
11. Summary of La Liga season
12. The race for 3-7 in Spain

We thank Johanna & Petter for their valuable time and being on the show. We also hope you will all enjoy this podcast a lot. Cheers!

Due to technical difficulties, Ricky had to drop-off during the recording but Martin has more than made up for it.

Topics discussed : Total Duration 45 min

1. 1. Atleti season so far
2. Arrival of Falcao, diego, arda and how the team is playing different this year
3. Manzano Reyes case
4. Derbi - same old story ?
5. predictions for derbi and season
6. Europa League performance
7. Player of the year so far and signing of the year
8. The Jorge Mendes factor
9. The lack of cantera players
10. Who is in charge at Atleti
11. Status of new stadium
12. The story of Martin: How an American sports junkie became a fan of Atleti.

Both Martin and Ricky have great passion for Atleti and have a deep knowlegde of the going ons at the club. We thank them both for agreeing to record this at incovenient hours (6am in Madrid and midnight in Florida).

We hope you all enjoy this podcast.

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1. Sevilla’s season so far
2. Sevilla v Athletic preview
3. Liga Justa movement - where does it stand now?
4. Rosell’s comments about sharing the wealth and reducing the size of La Liga
5. Are we watching Real Madrid and Barcelona lesser and lesser in the League?
6. Aaron and Jeremy’s predictions for Sevilla in the League.
7. Best players of the Sevilla so far
8. La Liga financials
9. La Liga v Serie A discussion
10. Week#13 preview

EPL - 20 min

1. Fernando Torres - Is he improving?
2. David Silva - Was he ignored for the Ballon d’Or nominations unjustly? - What was the real reason why Silva was dropped after the Switzerland game in WC 2010 - Double pivot vs Silva at false 9
3. Juan Mata - Pepe Reina’s comments about playing in La Liga vs EPL

Players in other leagues - 10 min

1. Raúl & Jurado at Schalke
2. Luis Enrique & Bojan at Roma
3. Nolito, Rodrigo and Javi García at Benfica
4. Capel and Jeffren at Sporting Lisbon

La Liga Week#12 Recap - 26 min

1. Athletic x Barcelona : Game of the season
2. Levante x Valencia : Unai’s master-piece - Where will Levante go from here?
3. Getafe x Atlético : The crazy game - Reyes x Manzano saga - the problems at Atlético

Rosell’s comments - 11 min

1. He talks about collective bargaining agreement - Is he really serious?
2. Reducing La Liga to 16 teams - is it a good idea?

1. Soccer Men Profiles of the Rogues, Geniuses, and Neurotics who dominate the world’s most popular sport

This book profiles the interesting and the not to so interesting football figures who have graced the world of football. Our interview was mostly focussed on the contents of this book.

One of the figures profiled in this book is Jorge Valdano. We discuss the legacy of Valdano at Real Madrid. Simon also talks how and why he choose certain players over the others to profile in the book.

Xavi, Messi, Fabregas, Torres, Maradona, Cryuff are among the players who are profiled in this book who are either Spanish or have played in the Spanish league.

2. Soccernomics - co-authored with Stefan Szymanski Why England always loses, Why Germany and Brazil win and Why US, Japan, Australia, Turkey and even Iraq are destined to become the kings of the World’s most popular port.

This book is all about numbers and stats about the various aspects of football like the popularity of the game across the countries in the world.

3. Soccer against th enemy

4. Ajax, the Dutch, the War

5. Magnum Soccer

6. Simon also writes a weekly column on Financial Times

The following questions/topics were discussed in the interview

1. Inspiration for Soccermen
2. How long it took to write Soccermen
3. Jorge Valdano’s legacy at Real Madrid
4. Do modern players have personalities? Simon quotes a couple of examples: One of a Real Madrid player and Lionel Messi
5. Do football players love their club?
6. Was there a criteria you used to choose players to profile in Soccermen?
7. Johan Cryuff - Legacy - Ajax & Barça academies
8. The trend of Spanish players moving to England
9. Why did Spain become world and european champions
10. Soccernomics questions: Spain is not among the top nations that watch or play football. How does that explain their recent success?
11. La Masia & Ajax academy
12. Messi v Ronaldo debate
13. Messi v Maradona debate
14. Finances of Spanish league clubs - The case of Bryan Ruíz
15. The Big Two in Spain vis-a-vis the European Superleague debate
16. Rosell’s comment about shrinking La Liga to 16 teams
17. Difference in youth academies in La Liga vs English Premier League
18. The academy wars: one club poaching academy players of another club
19. Denis Bergkamp’s aspirations to become a manager
20. Why football clubs rarely go bust even when they are not viable financially.

We thank Simon Kuper for agreeing to take some time out of his busy schedule to talk to us. We also thank Caitlin Graf of Peruse Books who helped us coordinate and schedule this interview for us.

Contest for podcast listeners

Listeners! We have a contest for you! During the interview Simon mentions what are the new books that Simon is working on right now. All you have to do is Email us the names of ALL the new books he is working on. You have a chance to win a copy of the Soccermen! The prizes are sponsored by Peruse books. Thank you Caitlin.

Segment#1 Champions League & Europa League recap - 22 minutes

1. Crucial win for Valencia
2. Real Madrid & Barcelona continue in cruise-control mode
3. The misery run continues for Villarreal
4. Athletic advance and Atleti are in great shape to advance in the Europa League

Segment #2 Ballon d’Or & Golden boy - 20 minutes

1. Discuss the nominations for the FIFA Ballon d’Or
2. Elisa & Ravi’s top 3 for the award
3. Discuss the nominations for the Golden Boy
4. Elisa & Ravi’s top 3 for the award

Segment #3 Recent editorials and upcoming specials - 25 minutes

1. The media brinkmanship issue
2. Are refs biased in La Liga
3. The racism issue and how social media is making it worse
4. Announcement about a great soccer writer that we will interview next week

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?

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

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!!!!

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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Apart from that, we have our usual segment of headlines where we discuss the La Liga action of the past weekend. Segment #1 : Headlines : La Liga round-up - 23 minutes

1. Levante continues to impress
2. Málaga thriller
3. Cristiano sharing the ball & Pipita’s hattrick
4. And much more

Segment #2 : All things Athletic with Natalia

1. Intro
2. The Basque derby experience, what it means to the fans.
3. Natalia’s impressions on current Athletic of Bielsa - has he found the formula and the right side
4. Spanish national team - who should be the #9 and what are the other needs of the team
5. The U20 World cup experience - who could be the next stars
6. Predictions for the Czech republic game and Natalia nailed it! 0-2

All of this interspersed with some funny anecdotes and banter with La Real and Donosti (San Sebastian)

We thank Natalia a lot for her time. It was great fun to listen to her passionate views and her energy in general throughout the podcast. We hope you all will enjoy it too.

Elisa and Ravi also take a look at the good and the not so good of the Champions League for Spanish teams, La Liga week #5 round up as well as look ahead into the games of the upcoming weekend.

Segment#1 Champions League and La Liga round-up

1. Madrid & Barcelona seemingly running away with their groups
2. Villarreal having a nightmare time in their group of death
3. Valencia eeking out a point at Mestalla to set themselves up for advancing out of the group
4. We diverge into Spain’s #9 dilemma. Soldado v Torres v Negredo v Llorente
5. La Liga round up of a crazy week.
6. A quick update on the Bielsa situation and their Europa league game
7. A look at La Liga week#6

Segment#2 Chat with Christopher Hussein 33min

1. How, when and why Mallorca
2. Why did Laudrup leave
3. Is Serra Ferrer to blame for this? Is he good for Mallorca?
4. Who do most of the Mallorcan’s support and why?
5. The Cavenaghi affair and the De Guzman saga
6. Financial situation of Mallorca
7. Youth system

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Elisa, Mando and I had the pleasure of chatting with one of our regulars, Juan Arango from Gol TV. We discussed a lot about La Roja, the Spanish national team as well as the current affairs of La Liga - the movement started by Del Nido, Fernando Roig et al to address the disparities of La Liga and a host of other problems like Ley Concursal, catastrophic fiscal management of clubs etc..

We even have little bonus clip where we go further on the problems and Juan talks a bit about living his dream at Gol TV.

Segment#1: 25 min - La Roja’s Euro 2012 qualification & Chile friendly

1. Chile game, first half - weird formation
2. Chile game 2nd half - much better
3. Euro 2012 qualification
4. The issues that Vicente Del Bosque needs to address to retain the Euro.

Segment#2: 22 min - with Juan

1. The movement of the Del Nido, Roig etc.. - short-term and long-term implications
2. Big teams of La Liga stockpiling players and loaning them - is this good or bad for the player, the league
3. TV rights, financial fairplay etc..

We have Simon Harris from Barcelona in this pod. Simon is Brit musician who moved to Barcelona 23 years ago and is a converted ‘Culé’. He loves the language Catalán, Catalunya, Spain and Spanish football. He runs the website http://www.Spain-football.org which covers a La Liga from a Barcelona perspective as well provide valuable information for tourists of Spain. Please check his site and you may follow him on twitter (@SimonHarris).

Podcast details

Segment#1 : Week#1 round-up : 23 min

1. Round-up of week #1 2. Best game of the week 3. Worst game of the week - we argued a lot on this one 4. A brief interlude into the disparity - will touch upon this in detail in another pod 5. Our reflections on the Bielsa experiment 6. Transfer season wrap-up of Atleti and Valencia two of the most active teams in the market this season

Segment#2 : Simon Harris : 27 min

1. Intro and how Simon fell in love the Barcelona and Barça 2. Importance of FC Barcelona to the city and Catalunya as a whole 3. Thoughts on the ‘Dream team’ and the current Barça side 4. Why Simon likes Spanish football over English football

We you hope you enjoy this pod. Subscribe to us on iTunes : http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/forza-futbol-podcast/id252137908 Listen to us on your Android, Windows Phone and other platforms