Nessun Dorma podcast: a 1980s and 1990s football odyssey

The Guardian

24-06-2025

The European Championships of 1980 and 2000 were only 20 years apart. They also belonged, both literally and figuratively, to different millennia. Euro 80 was a violent mess of negativity, apathy and hooliganism, Euro 2000 a joyous, sunkissed celebration of 21st-century football.
That jarring contrast was the spark for the latest series of Nessun Dorma: an odyssey through the history of football in the 1980s and 1990s. Our aim is to highlight, via a series of subterranean dives into each football season, how it went from being a 'a slum sport played in slum stadiums and increasingly watched by slum people' – as a Sunday Times editorial called it in 1985 – to a multi-gazillion pound industry.
There are multiple episodes per season, as well as deep dives into the major international tournaments and some diversions into the wider world of sport and pop culture. Guests include Pat Murphy, David Goldblatt, Dominic Sandbrook, Kieran Maguire, Tony Evans, Gordon Smith and Scott Murray.
There are Patreon exclusives, too: Q&As and a regular weekly feature called, er, This Week, in which we kick around seven dates from football's past. We'll soon be launching a Discord channel in which subscribers can hang out (okay, nerd out) with one another and the Nessun Dorma team. The more subscribers we have, the more we can all bathe in the past and pretend 2025 isn't happening. Think of it as a charitable donation.
The main series is ongoing – we're currently at the business end of a quite glorious Euro 84 – and will probably end sometime in 2029. Here's what we've covered so far.
We start at the bottom: the European Championship of 1980, a miserable, violent tournament played largely in front of empty stadia in Italy. Then we turn to the 1980-81 season, memorable in this country for the exploits of Aston Villa, Ipswich, Tottenham Hotspur – and Liverpool, who made amends for an unusually dismal league campaign by winning the European Cup for the third time.
Euro 80 | Ipswich, Villa and Spurs (pt1) | Ipswich, Villa and Spurs (pt2) | Crystal Palace, Team of the Eighties | Liverpool's European triumph | Man Utd sack Dave Sexton | Cricket: Botham's Ashes?
There were underdog stories galore in 1981-82, from Swansea's rise through the divisions to Liverpool rumbling inexorably through the field to win the title. Okay, that's hardly an underdog story but they were 12th at Christmas. We also look at the brief dominance of Spain's New Firm, Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao, and how a young Sven-Göran Eriksson led IFK Gothenburg to an emphatic Uefa Cup triumph.
Liverpool, Swansea and more | Hooliganism and the Falklands | Sven, Gothenburg and the Uefa Cup | Spanish New Firm
If you're aged between 44 and 54 – you are, aren't you – there's a fair chance you'll regard 1982 as the best World Cup of your lifetime. We devoted eight episodes to a festival of football in Spain.
England | Scotland | Northern Ireland | Algeria and Cameroon | Brazil | Italy 3-2 Brazil & West Germany 3-3 France | Post-mortem | The draft
The shock of the new was a recurring theme of the 1982-83 season. We discuss the other New Firm, the one established in Scotland by Sir Alex Ferguson and Jim McLean, celebrate the rise of Watford and Luton in England, investigate how Hamburg beat Juventus's galacticos to Europe's top table and trace the oft-forgotten origin of the ferocious rivalry between Arsenal and Manchester United.
We also talk to Brighton striker Gordon Smith about one of the biggest what-ifs in FA Cup history and recall the retirement of English football's unassuming giant: Bob Paisley, who slipped quietly away from Liverpool after winning his sixth title in nine years.
'And Smith must score…' | Scotland's new firm | Origin story: Arsenal and Man Utd | The rise of Watford and Luton | Hamburg winning the European Cup | Bob Paisley's retirement
On the morning of 25 April 1984, there was a fair chance that the three European finals that season would be all-British affairs. We cover the dramatic, brain-melting events of that day in a bumper pod, while also devoting episodes to the European runs of Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur.
Spurs were making headlines off the field too: we talk to Kieran Maguire about their groundbreaking floatation and the impact it had on football over the next 20-30 years. Nessun Dorma regulars Gary Naylor (Everton) and Mac Millings (Watford) do their best to remain impartial while recalling the 1984 FA Cup final between the sides. And the great David Goldblatt recalls the Los Angeles Olympics of 1984.
The Division One season | 25 April 1984 | Kieran Maguire on the Tottenham flotation | Liverpool's European Cup triumph | Spurs' Uefa Cup run | FA Cup final | David Goldblatt on the LA Olympics
It's hard to believe now, but the European Championship was an endangered species going into the 1984 tournament in France. Sixteen days of pulsating, unfettered football changed all that – although you wouldn't necessarily have known it in England, where only two of the 15 games were shown live. We've set aside seven episodes to cover the tournament, including two on the qualifiers alone. When you hear some of the stories – like the botched three-on-none attack that cost Bulgaria a place in France – you'll understand why.
Qualifiers (pt1) | Qualifiers (pt2) | Group 1 | Group 2 | Semi-final one
We are also running a sport draft for every year of our odyssey from 1980-2000. Mike Gibbons, Mac Millings and Gary Naylor each try to capture the sporting year with their choices, while also attempting discreet drive-bys on each other's selections.
1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984
We've done a handful of other drafts as well, including a couple of World Cups from the 1990s. Cricket World Cups.
Division One 1984-85 | England in the 1990s | Premier League 1992-93 | Champions League 1999-2000 | Cricket World Cup 1992 | Cricket World Cup 1999
Since our last Sport Network post – where did those two years go – we've relived USA 94, from the shocking murder of Andres Escobar to the genius of Gheorghe Hagi, Romário, Roberto Baggio and Hristo Stoichkov.
Preview | Groups A & B | Groups C & D | Groups E & F | Last 16 | Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Final and post-mortem
Last but not least, there are a number of one-off episodes on a variety of subjects.
When Italian Football Ruled Europe | Elton Welsby interview | Gary Lineker | The 1994-95 English season | Remembering Sven
Nessun Dorma is available on iTunes, Spotify and Substack. You can also find it on Bluesky and Patreon.