Friday Freebie: The Price Of Football
Inside the podcast world LIVE
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Now you will have noticed there was no Freebie last weekend and the reasons why are contained within this blog. Last Friday was the final day in the job that provided my income to clear my bills each month, what that means is a little more free time at least for a few weeks so this piece doesn’t get missed, time there isn’t always enough of in the day for.
But the full reason we had a week off was because one of the podcasts I listen to on a regular basis was hosting a live show in Brighton, 50 odd minutes from home so it would have been rude not to attend!
I listen to around eight different podcasts during a week, all very different in format and I always listen back to any personal ones I’ve recorded to hear how they turn out and the quality. When you interview someone you’re not really taking it in as you’re thinking of the next question or working out if you need to add something in as they respond to one.
The Price of Football Podcast began in 2019, hosted by Kevin Day and Kieran Maguire. It wasn’t expected to be a long running show but here they are five years later with a twice weekly effort featuring listener questions and a new show, coupled with occasional interviews slipped in on a Friday bonus episode.
Regular readers will know I used their Mark Ives interview a couple of weeks back as a blog piece and Kieran kindly retweeted the post for me on X/Twitter. Needless to say it sent my tweet impressions a bit nuts for 24 hrs but that’s the pull and lure some people have.
The opportunity to actually hear a live show was too good to miss being pretty close to home. I did get to meet Kieran before the show and to thank him for that retweet, networking is how you get anywhere in this business at times and small things make bigger things happen occasionally.
Now the reason the pod still going strong after all this time is down to the fact money in the beautiful game is far more prevalent than ever before. It’s not so common within the non-league game and the pod doesn’t only focus on those who spend it as fast they receive it.
Non-league football gets a mention from time to time, usually however for the wrong reasons, namely your club is in some kind of financial strife, possibly the question I should have asked was ‘which club has featured the most on the PoF Podcast total’.
What it does do every week is give me and others a great insight into ‘the money behind the beautiful game’, normally less than beautiful in that respect and some of it really does make my jaw drop.
But not much else fazes me when you see and hear what goes on from what I follow across social media channels but it’s impossible to keep up with all of it. The same goes just on simple non-league news too, there is so much happening on a daily basis it’s easy to miss something, listening to all these pod’s does help fill some of the gaps along the way.
The evening itself had two special guest PC Darren Balkham who looks after supporters on matchdays, away days and even England abroad and Paul Mullin, the Chief Operating Officer of Brighton & Hove Albion.
Despite both being above where I focus my attention, being the most local club within the PL and EFL besides Crawley Town it was interesting to hear the plans Brighton have that actually stretch ten years.
Yes, you read that right, ten years in advance they’re planning for. It might sound crazy but the vision Tony Bloom has for the club involves everyone from boardroom level to shop floor level, there are very few businesses that do that these days.
Those of you who listen to the podcast will know of The Baroness and Finlay the dog, only the latter was missing. A great conversation at the interval with said Baroness was really nice, my networking meant a mention for my blogs and own podcasts, followed up with a link for Kieran on Saturday morning, fingers crossed we have a new listener there on our Sussex efforts!
The evening wasn’t just hosted as an ad-hoc thing to put out there, it was in conjunction with the Brighton branch of the Samaritans, a great thing to do and support, the link for which I will add in below.
So, there we go, a different Friday evening for you but one very worthwhile and if you’re looking for an Xmas present coming up why not head to www.priceoffootball.com and check out the book purchases.
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Brighton Samaritans: Donate here