Hi, I'm Grant Wall, and welcome to the Planet Football Podcast, where I go in depth with the most intriguing people in the world of soccer.

On today's show, I'm joined by Andy Markovitz, one of the most popular professors at the University of Michigan.

Andy is a fascinating guy who loves everything from soccer to comparative politics to the

Grateful Dead, and we had a great time in our wide-ranging conversation.

I'm sure you run into this all the time,

the nonsensical constant contest about can you call it soccer.

And if you indeed call it soccer you ipso facto make it

irrelevant I mean I cannot tell you how often someone would get up and say something

like Professor Markov it's great lecture but I have to object to one thing.

And that is, and I already know, but that is that you call the sport soccer, and not football.

I said, I'm not getting into this. This is insane.

All that and more coming up.

Our guest today is one of my favorite people in the soccer world.

Andy Markovitz is the Arthur F. Thurnow professor at the University of Michigan.

He's also the Carl W. Deutsch Collegiate Professor of Comparative Politics and German Studies, a Professor of Political Science, a Professor of Germanic

Languages and L literature, and a Professor of Sociology.

And he has produced all sorts of publications on a wide variety of topics, but for our purposes he is the author of three sports books.

Offside, soccer, and American Exceptionalism.

Gaming the World, how sports are reshaping global politics and culture, and

Sportista, female fandom in the United States.

Andy, thank you for joining me.

Thank you so much for having me, Grant.

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