sports
Hosted by BBC World Service · sports · EN
Sporting Witness is a short BBC World Service podcast that tells the biggest stories in sport through the people who were actually there. Each episode is about nine minutes – roughly the time it takes to enjoy a cup of tea – and is built around one person’s memories. You don’t even have to follow sport to get hooked on our podcast. A lot of the episodes are about so much more – like identity, obsession, and politics. Take the surprising story behind the West Germany shirt from the 1990 World Cup final – a zigzag of black, red and gold that’s now one of the most collected pieces of kit in football history. Or the tale of Tonton Zola Moukoko, a virtually unknown Swedish-Congolese footballer who became an accidental cult hero to millions of gamers, thanks to a stats glitch that turned him into an internet legend. Then there’s the plasterer who somehow ended up in a boxing ring with a genuine legend, the forgotten Women’s World Cup that FIFA didn’t recognise for decades, and
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Contact path
Verified email
Booking probability
39%
Guest openness
Selective
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Signup to Generate a PitchSporting Witness is a short BBC World Service podcast that tells the biggest stories in sport through the people who were actually there. Each episode is about nine minutes, roughly the time it takes to enjoy a cup of tea, and is built around one person’s memories. You don’t even have to follow sport to get hooked on our podcast.
Sporting Witness is hosted by BBC World Service. The show has published 685 episodes to date.
Recent episodes include "Germany’s first football shirt sponsor" (31 October 2026, 11 minutes), "The first Refugee Olympic Team" (24 October 2026, 11 minutes), and "Manchester City’s inflatable banana craze" (15 October 2026, 10 minutes).
Sporting Witness publishes roughly weekly, with episodes averaging 11 minutes across 685 episodes.
Booking probability for Sporting Witness is 39%, and the host is rated Selective on guests. Sporting Witness requires a Pod Score of 80 or higher. Sporting Witness's contact route on record: verified email.
The strongest fits for Sporting Witness are Sports. Sporting Witness has a sports audience.
BBC World Service hosts Sporting Witness, a sports podcast with 685 episodes published.
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Sporting Witness
In 1973, the head of the alcohol brand Jägermeister, Gunter Mast, decided he wanted to sponsor his local football team Eintracht Braunschweig. However, under the rules of the West German Football Federation, the DFB...
Sporting Witness
In 2016, a new team competed at the Rio Olympics, made up of refugee athletes from around the world. 800m runner Rose Lokonyen fled South Sudan as a child to a refugee camp in Kenya. She tells Rachel Naylor about how...
Sporting Witness
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Manchester City supporters became famous for an unusual sight on the terraces: inflatable bananas. What began as a light-hearted joke soon turned into one of the most memorable fan...
Sporting Witness
In 2015, Julius Yego made history by becoming the first Kenyan to win a World Championship gold medal in a field event. Nicknamed Mr YouTube Man, Yego taught himself the javelin by watching online videos having...
Sporting Witness
In the 1990s Magi Haroun became the first female football photographer in the Premier League. She had begun her career in footballing photography in 1986 after growing up with close connections to Manchester United. Her...
Sporting Witness
The American swimmer Trischa Zorn-Hudson is the most decorated Paralympian in history. Across seven games, Trischa, who was born blind, has won 55 medals. In that time, she also saw the Paralympics go through drastic...
Sporting Witness
On 5 June 1982, a teenage refugee from Vietnam became the first Rubik's Cube world champion. Representing the United States, 16-year-old Minh Thai took on contestants from 19 countries at the championship in Hungary. He...
Sporting Witness
In 1981, Norway pulled off one of the biggest shocks in football history, beating England 2-1 in a World Cup qualifier in Oslo. But the match is remembered just as much for what happened after the final whistle...
Sporting Witness
In the 1990s, the biggest clubs in English football decided to form a new league to bring in more revenue. Spearheaded by the ‘big five’ of Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool, Everton and Tottenham Hotspur, the top...
Sporting Witness
In 1983, Maini Schildt competed in the first Ultimate Frisbee World Championship in Gothenburg, Sweden. Maini was a teenager when, as part of the Finnish women's national team, she reached the final against the USA...
Sporting Witness
In 1976, women's basketball made its Olympic debut. Men's basketball had been part of the Olympic programme since 1936, yet it took another 40 years before women were given the opportunity to compete. The first women's...
Sporting Witness
In 1986, Edinburgh football club Heart of Midlothian, known as Hearts, came within touching distance of glory. Just a few years earlier, the club had been in serious trouble, both on and off the pitch. But under manager...
Sporting Witness
In 1991, the NFL decided to create an international league of American football teams. Six new teams were formed in the USA, one in Canada and three in Europe. This eventually became an entirely European league in 1995...
Sporting Witness
On 15 October 1981, at a baseball game between the Oakland Athletics and the New York Yankees in the USA, American cheerleader Krazy George Henderson got fans to stand up and sit down in sections around the stadium...
Sporting Witness
Rafael Nadal was known for being one of the best clay court tennis players but, ever since he started playing at four years old, it was his ambition to triumph on grass and win Wimbledon. After losing twice in the final...
Sporting Witness
In July 1990, West Germany won the World Cup for the third time, beating Argentina 1-0 in Rome. The shirt the victorious players were wearing that night has become one of the most sought-after by classic kit collectors...
Sporting Witness
In 2000, Brazilian footballer Ronaldo Nazario, known as Ronaldo, suffered a career-threatening knee injury whilst playing for Inter Milan at the age of 24. His physiotherapist, Nilton Petroni, said it was the ‘worst...
Sporting Witness
Host nation Brazil were World Cup favourites in 2014, but the German team dismantled Brazil's defense and spirit by scoring five goals in 29 minutes. Germany's Thomas Müller tells Uma Doraiswamy how they inflicted...
Sporting Witness
Pickles the dog became an unlikely hero before the 1966 World Cup when he found the stolen Jules Rimet trophy on his daily walk. Stardom beckoned as he was honoured with a medal and a role in a film, even becoming part...
Sporting Witness
In 1994, the USA hosted the FIFA World Cup for the first time. The choice of host nation was a controversial one because, at that time, the US didn't have an active professional football league. Alan Rothenberg was the...
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