Martin Luther (not the King) nailed 95 protest theses against the Christian church of his day to a church door in Germany on October 31st 1517. And Protestants , properly understood, have been protesting ever since. As we near "Reformation Day" again, David Kilpatrick, a Professor of English and Sports Managment, channels that spirit of protest to the world of soccer. His playful, bold and short book "95 Theses on the Reformation of Football: Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Glocal Football Governance" stands in a strong tradition of critical and intelligent football literature on this podcast. A listener himself, David and I roamed anywhere between 16th century Germany, the New York Cosmos, youth soccer and the mess that is FIFA. In this longer episode before a Fall break, you will also get an update from Wayne (of the Red Bull and Leeds United episode 4 weeks ago) on the anointing of Jürgen Klopp as the head of Red Bull's soccer empire, and a critique of what is happening (or not) with the Chicago Red Stars. HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE: David Kilpatrick's book Mercy University's portrait of the book David on his website and x/twitter "Chicago Stars FC" launches new crest and explains "it's significance" NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE . Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help. Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me. Artwork for The Assistant Professor of Football is by Saige Lind Instrumental music for this podcast, including the introduction track, is by the artist Ketsa and used under a Creative Commons license through Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/
