A cold, windy night in Stoke: How weather impacts football
The Athletic FC Podcast
The Athletic
4.0 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 8 February 2026
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week — The Athletic FC Tactics podcast dive into the world of weather.
How do the elements impact what happens on the pitch?
From the rainy, cold and windy nights at Stoke.
To the scorching heat of the 1994 World Cup in the U.S.
We’ll discuss it all.
Host: Michael Bailey
With: Michael Cox, Mark Carey and Conor O'Neill
Producer: Mike Stavrou
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Athletic FC |
| 0:03.1 | Hello and welcome to the Athletic Fc tactics podcast. |
| 0:18.0 | I'm Michael Bailey. |
| 0:18.8 | This week we're diving into the world of weather. How did the elements |
| 0:22.5 | impact what happens on the pitch from the rainy cold nights at Stoke to the scorching heat of the |
| 0:28.5 | 1994 World Cup in the US? We will discuss it all. And for this one, we have a trio who can |
| 0:33.8 | definitely perform in a cold studio in London. It's Michael Cox. |
| 0:38.3 | Hello, Michael. |
| 0:39.3 | Making his tactics debut, Connor O'Neill. |
| 0:42.4 | Hi, Michael. |
| 0:43.5 | And Mark Carey. |
| 0:45.3 | Hi, Michael. |
| 0:46.2 | Once again, this is an episode inspired by one of you guys, our lovely listeners. |
| 0:51.2 | Jody emailed us. |
| 0:52.3 | You should know the address by now, but in case you've forgotten, |
| 0:55.2 | it's tacticspod at theathletic.com. Jody says, I'm wondering if you consider doing an episode |
| 1:02.1 | about football and the weather. Yes, Jody, we would. How have varied climatic conditions |
| 1:07.8 | shaped national footballing styles, tactics, squad building strategies, |
| 1:12.0 | etc. How, if at all, has the advent of data analytics and the development of new technologies |
| 1:17.8 | take an account of the weather and altered the approach of players, managers and directors of football? |
| 1:24.4 | Well, request accepted, Jody. Mr Michael Cox, I referenced Stoke City in the |
| 1:30.4 | intro and the windy conditions at the ground formerly known as the Britannia Stadium. Does the weather feel |
... |
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