

Find out more about our partnership with Portsmouth Football Club.
We're the Main Club Partner of Portsmouth Football Club (PFC), one of the best known and most well-loved organisations in the city. This relationship began with the 2018/19 season and, in 2021, we expanded our sponsorship to include both the men’s and women’s teams.
- We’ve partnered with the club because we share the same ambitions:
- We want to play a key role in the economic, educational and cultural life of our city and region
- We want to increase participation in higher education and raise the aspirations of young people throughout the city
- We’re proud to be part of the city of Portsmouth and we want to increase awareness
As a leading university in England for sports science, it is a natural fit for us to work together with Portsmouth Football Club. We are ambitious for the success of the University, the Club and our great city.
Meet the new Portsmouth Football Club Scholar
Nadine Smith practically lives in the shadow of Fratton Park so is a fitting recipient of the Portsmouth FC Scholarship.
Nadine, who has just started her BA (Hons) Graphic Design degree with the University, is the second student to receive the scholarship, which is part of the University's partnership with the club.
The scholarship sees the club support students throughout their three-year course via financial support of their tuition fees as well as offering direct work experience.
The whole point of this relationship is to inspire young people to see university as an option for them, and so I think it's particularly good that we have this scholarship available.
Part of the partnership is all about raising educational attainment within Portsmouth and giving people really, really good, exciting futures. And with Nadine now coming in, it's fantastic to have somebody local on our doorstep, have the opportunity to go to university and to be part of that is really, really special for the football club.
To start with, I honestly didn't think I'd get the scholarship. I applied for it, obviously just off chance and it obviously is an amazing opportunity. Doing graphic design, it is about reputation and getting your name out there and obviously being able to work with Portsmouth Football Club, it gives me work experience and obviously builds my skills working with an actual company. So that will helps a lot with the graphic design, learning the practical side.
It is a massive first step into my career of being a graphic designer. I’m looking forward to the social aspect, meeting a lot of new people from different places. Also getting the opportunity to learn a lot more skills within graphic design, obviously they have a lot more opportunities there with their facilities. The university’s all about giving opportunities for young people in the city to succeed and so, I'm really pleased for her that she's been successful and I think she'll have a fantastic time at university.
Benefits of the partnership
Working together means we help the community and each other in many different ways:
- The Portsmouth FC Scholarship champions one local student each year through three years of their degree with financial support and direct work experience with the club
- We inspire young people to get into higher education by visiting colleges and schools together
- Our students and academics work with Portsmouth FC staff and players on collaborative research projects
- We share our facilities and knowledge with each other. For example the club uses University pitches for out-of-season training and also testing and dental facilities in the Science and Health Faculty
- We promote each other by publicising our partnership and shared support of the city
- University staff and students get discounted match tickets for all Pompey’s home League One matches (see below for more information)
Education is the foundation of a prosperous community and by working together, we can encourage young people to consider futures they may not have believed achievable in the past.
Work experience for students
From work placement to full time role at Portsmouth Football Club
Ollie Marsh, a graduate of our BA (Hons) Journalism degree (awarded by the NCTJ as the Best Performing Undergraduate Course for 2017-18) now works for Portsmouth Football Club in the media team.
Find out how he achieved his dream - from doing a work placement at the club to securing a full time position.
My name's Ollie Marsh, I studied Journalism at the University of Portsmouth and I now work at Portsmouth Football Club in the media team.
I've always felt that a club's media output has a big impact on the identity of the club, and certainly we bear in mind that everything we do relates to and contributes towards a brand. So there's a little bit more responsibility than it seems on the surface.
In the briefest possible terms, I look after all of the digital side of things for the club, so that includes their social media channels and their Youtube channel. I wasn't always interested in sports marketing. In fact when I started uni, I said that my goal was to become a local journalist and my dream was to work at a football club. So from my point of view, I'm hugely thankful that my dream has now come true. And definitely the course equipped us as well, because it gave us a really broad range of skills that can be applied to lots of different situations and it gave us a real insight into all areas of the media industry.
It was easy to secure a placement at Portsmouth Football Club but it wouldn't have been were it not for the university. The lecturers really go above and beyond to put you on the right path, get your foot in doors and it pays off because I'm here now. Having a placement here did build my confidence because it's such a difference having your work actually seen by an audience. It's all well and good handing in assessments and that can be fun, but when your work is actually seen by 100,000 people 0150 which is the audience that Portsmouth have on their social channels – it's such a buzz and it's fantastic to see all the engagement coming through and all the positive feedback.
I think there's definitely a parallel between the lecturers at university and the football manager. Obviously, football managers have usually had a career in the game and all of our lecturers had a career in journalism so you knew what they were talking about. And also, they could sometimes give us the hairdryer treatment if they needed to, to motivate us. And just generally they looked for the right tactics, the right game plan to get us all the results that we wanted and it's that level of commitment that we really appreciated. And certainly the university and the football club are both massive parts of the identity of the city, so I think it's an incredible thing that there's now a close link between them.
Hundreds of students have benefited from the partnership by working directly with the club, be that full-time or part-time paid roles, placement and post-grad positions or work experience within the football and business departments of the club. Examples include:
- Match filming and managing the Fratton Park big screen, operating cameras and carrying out vision mixing
- Part-time work in hospitality, the club shop and stewarding on match days
- Work placements in the club's coaching academy for undergraduate and postgraduate Sport and Exercise Science students
- Volunteering experience around partnership campaign such as Restart a Heart
- A number of graduates have gone on to secure full-time employment with the club in marketing, hospitality and sports science
- Our dental students give dental health checks to first team and academy players
Find out how our Careers and Employability team can support you
Being part of the city of Portsmouth as chairman of their football club, while having a close relationship with a high-quality university is a magic combination.
Purple Ticket discount for students and staff

As part of the partnership, staff and students at the University can watch Pompey in action at Fratton Park for a discounted price of £16.
To book, first register with the Pompey e-ticket site then, once logged in, click on this link to access the £16 discounted University of Portsmouth tickets. Once you’ve selected your seat in your match of choice, scroll down the Price Class Options to find the University of Portsmouth ticket.
And remember to take proof of University I.D. with you to the match for spot checks at the turnstiles.
Portsmouth FC Scholarship

Our community partnership

Working with Schools and Colleges
