🎙️ EPISODES

Our first ever in-person episode! We watched England play from a pub in Dublin, surrounded by Irish fans booing every England touch. Fitting, because England served up 74 minutes of pure stress before scraping past DR Congo 2-1, rescued (again) by Harry Kane. Sam and Ash review the great escape, hand out brutal player ratings, and preview a terrifying last-16 tie against Mexico at altitude.

The group stage is done, the knockouts are here, and our draft is somehow locked dead level at 95-95. This week Sam and Ash react to a nervy England 2-0 Panama (job done, but are they actually any good?), then predict the entire World Cup 2026 bracket — every knockout game, the upsets, and who lifts the trophy. Spoiler: we may have talked ourselves into England's first final in 60 years.

England went from putting four past Croatia to being shut out 0-0 by Ghana — and a Ghanaian witch doctor reckons he knows why. Sam and Ash break down the most frustrating England performance of the tournament, the "curse" placed on Harry Kane, and the VAR call that should have handed Ghana a penalty (where exactly was the video ref?)...

This week: the maddest new FIFA rule yet (sent off for covering your mouth?!), FIFA forcing a Toronto weed shop to smash a World Cup trophy bong, the Golden Boot race heating up with Messi, Mbappé, Kane and Haaland, Ronaldo getting roasted, and our brand-new World Cup tier list of all 48 teams.

The World Cup is back and Week 1 was absolute carnage. This week on Talkin' Ballocks, Ash and Sam break down a referee who went viral for speaking complete gibberish on the biggest stage in football, the Somali ref denied entry to the USA over alleged terror links after FIFA had vetted him, THREE red cards in a single opening game, USA putting four past Paraguay, and a whole lot of nonsense in between. Plus: Where On Earth (the food-and-fact guessing game), a True-or-Bollocks story from the 1974 World Cup you won't believe, another round of the Anthem Battle, and we imagine the chaos if VAR crashed during the World Cup Final.

Welcome to Episode 1 of Talkin' Ballocks! The brand new video podcast where Sam and Ash bring you the ultimate blend of football chat and absolute, unadulterated nonsense. Hit SUBSCRIBE for weekly episodes throughout the World Cup 2026! In our massive premiere episode, we are diving straight into the pre-World Cup chaos. We look at the bizarre sports science behind the England squad using tech-powered "palm-cooling devices" to survive the North American summer heatwave, and dissect FIFA's absolute shambles of a website glitch that saw fans score £0.00 tickets—only for FIFA to cancel them and demand full payment. We also introduce our wildcard segment "What on Earth is That?" where we react to the unbelievable fact that Curaçao (population 156,000) is officially the smallest nation to ever qualify for a World Cup, before testing Ash's football trivia knowledge on World Cup debutants Uzbekistan. Plus, we go head-to-head in our National Anthem Battle to decide which country's theme song strikes the most fear into their opponents. Finally, it’s the Main Event: The Ultimate World Cup 2026 Group Stage Draft. Using a classic snake-draft format, Sam and Ash pick 6 teams each across Elite, Mid-Tier, and Chaos categories. Who built the best squad?