Football Journalism

The highlights

• Study our brand-new curriculum, which has been updated to keep pace with the industry. There are new modules in e-sports, commentary and punditry, data analysis, and more.
• Choose many of your modules (from the second year onwards) and focus on an area of football journalism that interests you – such as writing, podcasting, radio, TV, social media, or communications.
• Learn from tutors that are experienced and well connected, having worked for organisations like the Premier League, West Bromwich Albion, Wembley Stadium, the BBC, and The Guardian.
• Build your experience with the opportunity to work for clubs and other organisations within the game while you study – we’ll use our contacts to help you get your foot in the door.
• A high proportion of our students quickly find work in the industry.

A football degree for 2023 and beyond

Thanks to multi-billion-pound television deals, 90% of people in the UK owning a smartphone, and the explosion of social media, the desire for football content has never been greater. On this degree, we’ll teach you how to service that need.

We recognise this is an extremely fast-moving field, so we are always improving and evolving our course to reflect the industry. With this in mind, we have an updated curriculum for 2023, with new and improved modules on e-sports, video journalism, social media, feature writing, commentary and punditry, data analysis and visualisation, the societal impact of journalism, and more.  

This is in response to changes in the industry. Football clubs are now taking control of their own narrative and looking for well-qualified media professionals who can help them build their audiences and communicate directly with fans. Journalists are also building their own brands, audiences and content. The traditional forms of media are still extremely relevant, but they have had to shift their offering to reflect their audience.

Our aim is to help you develop the skills that all these employers will look for when hiring, as well as to show you how to manage your own content and brand. We want to ensure the broadest range of job pathways are open to you.

Play to your strengths

As the definition of journalism has broadened, so too has our degree. It’s extremely varied, with plenty of optional modules in years two and three, so you can tailor your degree to your own talents and interests.

We’ll cover traditional skills like interviewing, newswriting and media law, as well as those required by the industry today, such as video, social media management, podcasting, and data analysis.

As well as producing content, you’ll also be asked to analyse the work of current journalists to understand what best practice looks like. You will also learn more generally about communication, media, and societal issues in journalism.

*Juliet placed third in the 2024 FWA Vikki Orvice Student Football Writer of the Year.

Get professional experience

Our tutors are well-connected in the industry. They can put you in touch with football clubs and media organisations, so you can start to gain valuable work experience.

Recently for example, we arranged for groups of students to cover the 2022 Women’s Euros and the 2022 Commonwealth Games. We also have around 80 students currently working for individual clubs, such as Wolverhampton Wanderers, Birmingham City, Derby County, Nottingham Forest, Burton Albion, Walsall and Mansfield.

You’ll cover all aspects of the news cycle from previewing matches to live reporting and post-match analysis, along with press conferences, interviews and sports features. To see what our students get up to, take a look at the Derby Uni Footy Journos website and TikTok page.

By the end of the course – provided you’ve made the most of these opportunities – you should have an impressive editorial portfolio to show prospective employers.

Be inspired by guest speakers

You’ll gain fascinating insights into the profession thanks to our programme of guest lectures by sports journalists, broadcasters and football industry insiders. In recent years these have included:

• Commentator Martin Tyler
• Manager Martin O'Neill
• Player, coach and broadcaster, Kelly Smith
• Player Max Bird
• TV broadcaster, sports commentator and actor, Arlo White
• Journalist Henry Winter
• Commentator and presenter Jacqui Oatley
• Journalist Darren Lewis
• Dharmesh Sheth from Sky Sports News
• Broadcaster Nicole Holliday
• Content Creator for Goal, Yani Ourabah
• Football Finance expert Kieran Maguire
• George and Ali from The Not The Top 20 podcast

Offer Holder Event at Derby County Football Club

Take a look at what happened at an Offer Holder Event exclusively for Applicants of BA (Hons) Football Journalism at the University of Derby and gain an insight into this course from student Ella. The event took place at Derby County Football Club with a panel of speakers including manager Paul Warne, former player and club captain Curtis Davies, lead presenter and commentator for RamsTV, Owen Bradley, and Programme Leader for BA (Hons) Football Journalism, Chris Hall.

Outstanding facilities

You'll predominantly be based at our Markeaton Street and Kedleston Road sites, which have everything a journalist needs. Our facilities include three radio studios, a fully equipped television studio, video editing suites, Mac suites and a newsroom featuring the latest software, including Adobe Creative Suite.

Our radio studios have recently been refurbished and fitted with Calrec technology — a leading range of broadcast audio mixing consoles and equipment. All large media companies are now migrating to this technology, so we're ahead of the game.

All of this means you’ll be confident using industry-standard technology, giving you an advantage when you're looking for a job.

Study abroad

We can offer opportunities for you to spend time in another country, including studying at our partner universities or working on a placement or internship.

For a more general journalism degree, you can also study our BA (Hons) Journalism.

Please note that our modules are subject to change - we review the content of our courses regularly, making changes where necessary to improve your experience and graduate prospects.

You will learn in a variety of ways – for example through:

• Lectures and seminars, including guest lectures from industry experts
• Practice-based workshops
• Trips to clubs, matches and tournaments
• News days
• Group work
• Independent study.

Assessment

Our assessments are focused on teaching you how to be a journalist. There are no exams and you’ll be assessed mainly on the content you produce, which might be social media content, podcasts, videos, features, and news articles. For some modules, you will need to complete more academic assessments, including essays, case study reports and presentations.

Who you will meet

• Chris Hall is the Programme Leader and supports West Bromwich Albion. He worked in the communications team for his beloved club for eight years, managing their social media and broadcast products. Chris then spent five years at The FA running Wembley Stadium’s digital team. His career highlight was organising all the on-field activity for Sir Alex Ferguson’s final game as a manager.

• Peter Lansley is a senior lecturer, Guardian football writer, and FA coach mentor. He’s had 20 years’ experience writing for broadsheets, 13 of which were as The Time’s Midlands and Women's football correspondent. Pete has reported from 20 major tournaments but says the pinnacle was reporting on the Lionesses winning the 2022 Women's Euros with Derby students. He supports Wolves.

• Neil Roberts is an Everton fan and has spent 25 years in journalism (newspaper and TV). While working for ITV News, he interviewed many sports people including David Beckham, Johnny Wilkinson, Joe Calzaghe and Sir Bradley Wiggins. Neil was also involved in the re-brand of the Premier League in 2016, as executive producer of their global TV channel.

• Niall Hickman has worked as a sports journalist for ITV, Sky Sports, the Daily Mail and the Daily Express. His career highlights include covering World Cups, Olympic Games, Ryder Cups, and world championship boxing. He supports Wolves as well as non-league side, Stourbridge FC.

• Neil Manship is a senior lecturer and Derby County fan. He began his career as sports reporter at the Derby Telegraph and then moved into radio and TV, working as a reporter, producer and presenter for the BBC. This included 13 years as a lead producer and manager for BBC Look North. He’s most proud of producing ‘Programme of the Year’ in The BBC Nations and Regions Awards.

• Caroline Jones is a lecturer and Derby graduate who follows Burton Albion. She gained over 10 years’ experience in the online media and newspaper industry before becoming a lecturer, working for Liverpool Echo and Derby Telegraph. Her expertise includes content management, live blogging, SEO and social media.

• Dr Beth Wood is a lecturer who spent five years working as a broadcast journalist before switching to teaching and research, initially working in colleges and schools. For her PhD, Beth explored how Gen Z are accessing and engaging with the news and the reasoning behind this.

By the end of this football journalism degree, you should have plenty of professional experience and contacts to get your career off to a flying start.

The course develops the broad range of knowledge and skills you need to become a football journalist today, but it also prepares you for other careers in journalism, PR and marketing, advertising, corporate communications, law and public administration or politics.

Our football journalism graduates are now working for clubs and organisations like Manchester City, TalkSPORT, AFTV (Arsenal Football TV), Brentford FC, Nottingham Forest Women FC, Blackburn Rovers LFC, Football Manager, Birmingham City FC, Bet365, Reach plc and Reuters. They work in a great variety of roles, including as club journalists, commentators, social media managers, communications officers, and community liaison officers.

2025 entry

These are the typical qualification requirements for September 2025 entry.

Contextual offers may apply to students who meet certain criteria.

Offers will be made initially based on your application, including predicted grades and/or grades you have already achieved. You may be given the opportunity, within your offer letter, to submit a portfolio. If you submit a strong portfolio we will make you an unconditional offer, to reflect the quality of your work and your potential.

Additional entry requirements

• Portfolio: Recommended - view portfolio details

2025/26

Further information about our fees and support you may be entitled to.

Additional costs and optional extras

Additional information about your studies

Teaching hours

Like most universities, we operate extended teaching hours at the University of Derby, so contact time with your lecturers and tutors could be anytime between 9am and 9pm. Your timetable will usually be available on the website 24 hours after enrolment on to your course.

Course updates

The information provided on this page is correct at the time of publication but course content, costs and other individual course details do change from time to time and are updated as often as possible, so please do check these pages again when making your final decision to apply for a course. Any updated course details will also be confirmed to you at application, enrolment and in your offer letter.

If you are thinking about transferring onto this course (into the second year for example), you should contact the programme leader for the relevant course information as modules may vary from those shown on this page.

Other courses you might like

• Journalism BA (Hons)
• Specialist Sports Journalism BA (Hons)

Contact us

If you need any more information from us, eg on courses, accommodation, applying, car parking, fees or funding, please contact us and we will do everything we can to help you.