Day In The Life Of a Football Media Officer

For almost two seasons now, I’ve been volunteering with the Peterborough United Women’s Media team. From originally spotting a tweet appealing for volunteers, It took me two weeks to pluck up the courage to enquire about the role. I never expected to even get the position but I am so glad I did. The role has changed my life (I know that sounds cheesy, in some ways it is!). At 24 years-old my life wasn’t heading anywhere, I was just getting by. Working with the media department, gave me a hobby. After a few months, I realised I was far happier working with the football club as opposed to my actual full-time job in a school. I plucked up the confidence to apply to university where I’m due to finish my first year shortly. So yes, my role with the media department has changed my life. Although my life is upside down for the next three years, I now have career aspirations and a happier life to look forward to in the longer term.

What I’m basically trying to say is do it. Anything you’re not sure about trying. Just do it. It could be the best decision you ever make. And for those interested in working in football media industry, here’s a day in the life of a media officer on a matchday:

Peterborough United Women play in Tier 4 of the football pyramid; one of the larger teams in the division. With the media team consisting of myself, a head of media and a photographer, the workload can be busy – but we don’t just have fun scrolling on X all day!

This particular matchday, the clocks had gone forward, which meant we lost an hour’s sleep; not the most ideal scenario for an away day! I woke up at 7:30am and had my breakfast; apple and cinnamon hot cross buns – well it was Easter Sunday after all!

By 9:30am, I scheduled the ‘it’s matchday’ post on social media and asked for the team line-up. I like to get all the graphics ready in advance. I packed my bag ready with all the essentials (laptop, laptop charger, dongle (every football media officer’s dream!), DJI microphones, notebook, drinks and my lunch). I then drove to the training ground and loaded the media car with the VEO camera and kit bags, before setting off to Solihull at 11:00am.

At 12pm, we arrived at Rugby Services. Now working in football, you get to experience a lot of service stations up and down the country, and I must say Rugby is my favourite of all. It’s got every shop and food franchise you’d like and is clean! I always like to wander around the shops before making a decision. I wasn’t ready for my lunch yet so I chose Marks & Spencer’s salted caramel overnight oats which was very nice. After a half hour break, we got back into the car and drove to Solihull Moors stadium. The Birmingham traffic was surprisingly quieter than usual so I just had enough time to eat my lunch before we arrived.

Upon arrival, I helped to set up the dressing room; laying out all the players’ kits. I then scheduled the starting XI post for social media before posting up the images sent by the photographer. I was lucky enough to have a bit of chilled out time whilst waiting for the players to warm-up at 2:15pm. When they did come out, I took videos for X and Instagram.

At 3pm, we made our way to the stands ready for kick-off. For today’s match, I was writing the match report and updating Instagram. I took notes as the game went on and uploaded goal graphics to Instagram. In typical Posh fashion, we scored a last minute just as we had a full time score up ready to post! Some quick amends sorted this out!

After the final whistle, I organised the player and manager interviews for the media officer. After a match debrief over post-match food, we left the stadium at 5:15pm.

During the drive home, I finalised the match report before we stopped up off at McDonald’s. I was feeling hungry so I ordered a ¼ lb burger with cheese, fries, halloumi fries, crème egg Mcflurry and a chocolate brownie. I said I was hungry! We got back to the training ground at 8pm where I uploaded the match recording from the VEO camera. I got home at 8:45pm just in time to watch ‘Hunted,’ which I surprisingly didn’t actually fall asleep to this week!

So that’s a typical day in the life of a media officer on a matchday!