The World Cup, But Not Really

The Art of Football Commentary

Fri, 24 Jul 2026 10:00:00 +1000

In this final episode of ‘The World Cup, But Not Really’, Rune and Stefan take on football commentary from a handful of different languages, and dig into some of its most unforgettable historic moments. We travel through a few clips, starting at 1954, ending up in modern day football commentary, looking underneath ‘the commentary hood’ and talking about what’s going on during World Cups - and how it often sounds a little different when your country’s team is playing.

Football, Men & Emotions

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 10:00:00 +1000

Football stadiums and football viewing parties might be the last place where men are allowed to cry and be really emotional in public. In this episode, Rune and Stefan try to work out why. Stefan has been noticing grown men being really emotional all over during the Word Cup, and he goes looking for an explanation in the research and by chatting with Ben Vasiliou, CEO of The Man Cave. Through their conversation they chat about the disappearing "third space," why sport's black-and-white simplicity gives men permission to feel, and where the line sits between joyous jeering and behaviour that's just aggression wearing a scarf.

Playing in the dark: Australia's Women's blind football

Fri, 10 Jul 2026 10:00:00 +1000

In this episode of The World Cup, But Not Really, Rune heads to a training camp to meet The Bilbies, Australia's women's blind football team, where five players plays in complete darkness, and he learns how the game is played. We meet the players and learn what it means to finally find their people, a group of vision impaired women who get it, after growing up isolated and without access to sport built for them. The team lays out their mission: a seat at the table for women's blind football at the Brisbane 2032 Paralympics. The men’s game is there, but not the women’s, and as they would say, it’s about time.

When football finds a home

Fri, 03 Jul 2026 10:00:00 +1000

Chasing that feeling of football and home, Rune stumbles into the story of the Homeless World Cup, and the people for whom that feeling isn't a memory, but a lived reality. In this episode, Rune meets Kuda, who arrived in Australia in 2008 to play in the Homeless World Cup and never left. A career-ending injury and a childhood without parents back in Zimbabwe could have been the end of his story, instead, a stranger asked him a simple question, "Do you want to join us and play in Australia?”, and football became a path for finding a new home. Rune also drops in on a Big Issue’s Community Street Soccer program, the backbone of the Homeless World Cup, where players and coaches describe two hours a week that feel less like sport and more like family. As one coach puts it, everyone walks away feeling like they've scored a goal, whether they kicked the ball or not. Is football coming home? Maybe it never left.

Makers & Takers: How a Football Shirt Becomes Sacred

Fri, 26 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +1000

How does one of the happiest jerseys in football, The Canarinho, become something some Brazilians can't bring themselves to wear? And how were iconic football jerseys from the '90s made? Those are the two topics Rune deals with in part two of the 'jersey episodes'. Rune tracks down Drake Ramberg, who spent 37 years at Nike and was part of the team in 1990s Europe that designed some of football's most iconic jerseys for clubs and national teams including Arsenal, PSG, Borussia Dortmund, Nigeria and Italy. Drake reveals how those now-iconic vintage shirts were created, from late nights in the dark room screen-printing to the collaborations with clubs and federations that ultimately shaped each design. Rune also chats with Brazilian SBS journalist Fernando Vivas, and learns how the Brazilian jersey slipped from a symbol that united a country into the colours of a nationalist movement, and what happens when a football shirt, that’s arguably sacred to everyone, stops belonging to some.

The Goalkeeper is Always Ready: Socceroo's Paul Izzo

Thu, 18 Jun 2026 09:26:00 +1000

Is goalkeeping the loneliest job on the pitch? You're part of a team, but you're also doing your own thing, separated from everyone else by a strip of grass and some paint. In this episode we find out. We meet Paul Izzo, an Australian professional footballer, and one of three goalkeepers named in Australia's squad for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, currently playing at the Danish Club Randers FC, where we meet him. Paul explains the strange psychology of his position: why being number two might be the hardest job in all of football, and why his approach to being a goalkeeper sometimes is to imagine the worst thing that could happen in a single moment. This episode is about pressure, patience, and what it costs to wait on the bench for a moment that may never come, and why that moment, when it arrives, can mean everything.

Watch every minute of the FIFA World Cup 2026™ via SBS On Demand

The Australian Con Man Who Changed Canadian Soccer

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 12:09:00 +1000

In this episode, Rune digs into the tale of Con Jones. Born Thomas Shortell, a Sydney bookie who fleeced a hundred punters on Melbourne Cup day in 1903, fled the country one step ahead of a mob, and washed up in Vancouver with a bag of stolen cash and zero history in football. Twenty-five years later he died wealthy, respected, and in a Soccer Hall of Fame. Rune talks to former ABC journalist, Trevor Thompson about how an absolute scoundrel ended up cementing the spiritual birthplace of Canadian football, and why nobody back home remembers his name.

Watch every minute of the FIFA World Cup 2026™ via SBS On Demand

Football, Soccer, Whatever

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 13:41:00 +1000

Rune insists the only sport played with an actual round ball that you actually kick with your foot consistently should be called football. Stefan, who grew up calling it soccer and once won most improved, is not so sure. Joining them in this episode is Dr. Hunter Fujak, senior lecturer in Sport Management and author of Code Wars, to explain why Australia is unlike anywhere else on earth, a country of 26 million people somehow sustaining seven commercial sports at once, four of them called football. Along the way, Rune uncovers an inconvenient truth: the word "soccer" wasn't invented by Americans. It was invented by the British, who today pretends it never happened. And Stefan proposes a new title for a landmark book in Australian football history. This episode is about what it means to be a global game in a country that already has too many games, and why that might actually make the FIFA World Cup really special.

Watch every minute of the FIFA World Cup 2026™ via SBS On Demand

Collecting Football Jerseys & Memories

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 10:11:00 +1000

What does a football jersey really mean? From a secret shirt swap in a Mexican tunnel in 1986 to a record-breaking auction sale of 7.14 million pounds, Rune explores how the humble football jersey has evolved from game day gear into cultural artefact, fashion statement, and serious collector's item. Rune meets Bryan Cush, originally from Northern Ireland and now living in Australia - a lifelong football obsessive and collector of vintage football jerseys. Bryan shares how a childhood love of Manchester United strips grew into a deep passion for the stories stitched into every shirt, from spotting fakes on eBay during COVID lockdowns, to using a football jersey as a diplomatic tool at African border crossings, to organising a dawn-to-dusk football tournament for Maasai tribes in Kenya. Along the way, they reflect on why retro football kits have exploded in popularity, and why, in an age when people rarely talk to strangers, a football jersey can still stop someone in their tracks.

Why We Chant

Fri, 29 May 2026 10:46:00 +1000

In this episode of The World Cup, But Not Really, Rune makes the case that football chants are among the loudest and most important things humans do together. Stefan finds them unnecessarily aggressive. Rune sits down with Jorge Knijnik, Brazilian-Australian academic and lifelong football devotee, to unpack why chanting isn't just noise. It's belonging, carnival, and controlled war all at once. And Caroline Carnegie, CEO of Melbourne Victory, shares how they work with fans, stadiums, and police alike to make sure the few who cross the line don't define the many who are simply there to sing. Along the way, Rune trace the Aussie Aussie Aussie chant back to Cornish pasty sellers, and follow a Gloria Gaynor disco track through Dutch pop music to the streets of Paris. This episode is about what it means to be part of something bigger than yourself, and how chanting is how we get there.

Why The World Loves Football

Fri, 15 May 2026 13:47:00 +1000

Meet two culture nerds, Rune and Stefan - one who has always loved football, the other who can't kick a ball - and find out why they're making a podcast together about the world's biggest sporting event. They'll be talking to fans and players about what makes the World Cup unlike anything else, the way it suspends normal life, defines eras, and pulls people together under one flag. And Stefan introduces Rune to Paul the Octopus - the clairvoyant German octopus who correctly predicted eight out of eight matches at the 2010 World Cup, survived death threats from losing nations, and has never truly been replaced.

Kick Off: The World Cup, But Not Really

Tue, 12 May 2026 17:50:00 +1000

The World Cup, But Not Really is the football podcast for people who love football, and the people who don't. Host's Rune Pedersen and Stefan Delatovic dive into the fascinating world that surrounds the game: the chants and the emotions, the stories off the pitch, jersey culture, a blind women's team taking to the field, and so much more. From the weird and the quirky to the deeply human, each episode explores what football really means, to the fans, the communities, and the cultures it touches around the world. Dive in if you're as into culture as you are into the beautiful game, or if you're just drawn to the strange, the curious, and the stories that don't usually make the highlights reel.