This is Popular Front, a podcast focused on the niche details of modern warfare and underreported conflict with me Jake Hanrahan. For this episode we're speaking to journalist James

Montegoe and he's going to be speaking to us about the way in which football

altras have quite significantly influenced various different

violent uprisings and revolutions across the world. In some cases these altars ended up even being

soldiers militants in ongoing wars. Very interesting topic. If you like what we're doing, please do consider supporting us on our

Patreon, that's Patreon.com slash Popular Front. front. Firstly, congratulations on the book from what I've read it's really fucking interesting man really like it

But what we're going to be talking about today is basically how football hooligans aided the fight in Ukraine against the Russian-backed

separatists. I don't even know really where to start with this. So maybe

maybe just kind of explain to us how did you get involved in this you know talking to the the

football hooligan firms that ended up actually being you know soldiers and militants well I mean

years ago I started writing about football but it and none of it was actually about football I think it

maybe I was desired you know be a foreign correspondent in some way but I was a bit of a

failed foreign correspondent so I kept on finding these kind of football stories that really

reflected a lot of really political subjects and especially in the Middle East and

a lot of them ended up being about conflicts and war.

And obviously you don't find organized football leagues

in war zones, right?

In conflict zones is one of the first things

that goes out the window.

But you know, you started to notice these stories like, I mean I was in Zambia one time and I did a story about the Libyan national football team trying to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations and they're in the middle of the civil war

Gaddafi had been toppled but he hadn't yet been caught.

And Gaddafi sons were like massive fans of the national football team and tried to kind of use

...