St Mary’s Sports Journalism Students to Gain Vital World Cup Work Experience

As the FIFA World Cup kicks off, Sports Journalism students at St Mary’s University, Twickenham are being given the chance to cover the tournament during work placements at a number of high profile media outlets.  

The postgraduate students have been offered placements across the world to report on events at the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which takes place in Russia.  

International Sports Journalism MA student Louis Olvera arrived in Moscow in time to report that the FIFA Congress, football’s governing body, decided that the 2026 World Cup will take place in USA, Mexico and Canada. He will be reporting on Germany’s opening match against Mexico for the Sports Gazette and producing content for news video site Newsflare.  

Iman Alouie, who won funding from One World Media to create a documentary on Egypt’s progress at the tournament, arrived in Cairo as the World Cup kicked off with Russia beating Saudi Arabia. Her project has already attracted interest from Sky Sports and BBC World.     

Matt Bowers is in Spain to report on how the country will unite behind the 2010 winners, following recent regional disputes in Catalonia, the Basque country, Castilla and Galicia.  

Ingrid Sund is returning to her native Norway to work for Eurosport in Oslo while back in London, Croatian Ena Bilobrk will be freelancing for SNTV and will head to Russia to report live, should her country reach the latter stages of the tournament.  

Young Sports Writer of the Year Finalist Nick Friend will be producing stories for Sport 500, SportsPro Magazine and has been offered a two week placement at The Times during the final stages of the tournament, while Arimade Oladipo will be working on The Telegraph’s sports desk.  

Other Sports Journalism students will be covering the World Cup at Perform Media Group and for the Sports Gazette while Visiting Lecturer Richard Lenton will be hosting Singapore’s World Cup coverage at Eleven Sports Network.  

Programme Director of the Sports Journalism MA at St Mary’s Dr Daragh Minogue, said, “The students are understandably looking forward to watching the likes of Neymar, Messi and Kane, but for all of us on the course, it’s the work experience and freelancing opportunities that really matter.  

“Four years ago, I was lucky to do some freelance reporting in Rio but it was tough to get our students out to Brazil. This time our postgrads have been really focused on securing placements and paid work for the tournament in Russia, especially as so many sports media companies are taking on extra staff to cover the biggest sporting event in the world.”