Champions League semi-finals are here and a refereeing scandal in Italy
The Totally Football Show with James Richardson
The Athletic
4.5 • 4.4K Ratings
🗓️ 28 April 2026
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jimbo is joined by the Euro crew of James Horncastle, Tom Williams, Pol Ballus and Seb Stafford-Bloor to look ahead to the Champions League semi-finals and discuss the latest football news from around the continent.
It's down the last 4 in Europe's premier competition with PSG V Bayern the pick of the semi's on Tuesday, before Arsenal travel to Atletico Madrid on Wednesday.
Italian football is in meltdown as a refereeing scandal overshadows the weekend when Inter were hoping to seal the Serie A title. This comes 20 years on from the Calciopoli scandal and just a few weeks after the national side's failure to reach the World Cup.
In Spain, Real Madrid drop points again and will be hoping to avoid handing the champions-elect Barca the title in the upcoming Clásico. In Germany, Bayern have the title wrapped up and are going for a treble, while across the border in France, PSG look to have seen off Lens and are now 6 points clear at the top.
Plus Moment of the week and Tom's marathon weekend.
Produced by Lucy Oliva and Jesse Howard.
RUNNING ORDER:
• PART 1: Moment of the week (0.40)
• PART 2: Champions League preview (12.50)
• PART 3: Serie A with James (26.30)
• PART 4: La Liga with Pol (44.15)
• PART 5: Bundesliga with Seb (50.55)
• PART 6: Ligue 1 with Tom (57.05)
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The Athletic FC |
| 0:03.4 | Totally Football Show |
| 0:10.3 | European edition |
| 0:11.6 | Today |
| 0:12.4 | refereeing scandal hits Sidiya |
| 0:14.6 | just when things were going so well |
| 0:16.2 | for the Italian game |
| 0:17.1 | we've got the news on there |
| 0:18.5 | rocky horror plus word from elsewhere |
| 0:20.7 | Spain severe difficulties and Real Madrid's classical nightmares Ballant game. We've got the news on there, Rocky Horror, plus word from elsewhere, Spain, |
| 0:21.7 | severe difficulties, and Real Madrid's classical nightmares, Bundesliga, a gold-tastic weekend |
| 0:27.2 | in League Er, and how about those Mets? And a look ahead to the Champions League |
| 0:31.4 | finals, Paris-Sanchement against Bayern, and Atlago Madrid against Arsenal. It's all coming up in |
| 0:37.0 | this totally Football Show. |
| 0:42.5 | Monday 27th of April. |
| 0:44.5 | It's a big greetings from South Carolina for a special edition of this Euro Totally Football Show. |
| 0:51.8 | We have James Horncastle. |
| 0:54.1 | Hi James. Hello Jimbo. Hi. Tom Williams also in front of a really |
| 0:59.3 | impressive set of books on the shelves. Thanks James. Hi. Hello. Hello. Hi to you. Hey, Paul Bullis in |
| 1:06.4 | Catalonia. I am. I am. Hello. Hello. How are you guys? And in the special remote edition, the one man |
| 1:12.8 | actually turned up to the office is Seb Staffab Blois, Seb. Hello, Jim, but I found a standing desk |
| 1:20.8 | and every audio booth at the Athletic now has a tree. Yeah. Which is strange in the background. Yeah. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Athletic, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Athletic and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.