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Today's episode is a mix between soccer detective story and true crime podcasting. British investigative journalist Paul Brown is our Visiting Professor for the day. He and his colleague Philippe Auclair have piled up pathbreaking research on the backstory, money trail and flat out baffling activities of a group called 777 partners. Their activities in the insurance and airplanes business would be a story well worth telling in and of itself, but they feature here today because they own stakes in prominent football clubs in Brazil, Belgium, France Italy and Germany (Hertha Berlin, from 3 episodes ago!) and, last but not least are currently trying to buy Everton of the Premier League. And that deal is what might make the whole scheme go belly up, with plenty of casualties on the way - in the soccer world, but also among retirees, insurance brokers and airplane passengers.

HELPFUL LINKS FOPR TODAY'S EPISODE:

"The 777 Football Mystery" (1st investigative reporting by Paul and Philippe on josimarfootball.com)

"Out of the Blues" (most recent piece by Paul and Philippe)

"Kind of Blue" (includes the story of a 777 Airline entering administration)

"How the Private Equity Firm Buying Everton Built Its Business" (the Washington Post weighs in)

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Artwork for The Assistant Professor of Football is by Saige Lind

Instrumental music for this podcast, including the introduction track, is by the artist Ketsa and used under a Creative Commons license through Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/