Portsmouth Football Club are a professional football club based in the port city of Portsmouth on the south coast of England. The club were founded in 1898 and boast a storied and unique history.
Pompey have spent the majority of their existence in the second tier of English football but have two English top-flight league titles in their trophy cabinet, not to mention two FA Cup triumphs.
At the moment, Portsmouth are in EFL League One but are on course to achieve promotion back to the EFL Championship at a level where the club’s fans expect them to be at the very least.
Portsmouth were formed in the late 1890s by John Brickwood and five other senior figures of the city, including a headmaster, solicitor, government contractor, architect and wine importer.
They used their collective resources to build a football team and a ground to play on, building the foundations for one of the biggest southern football clubs in England.
Portsmouth’s nickname is ‘Pompey’ but historians have never been able to pinpoint and understand the etymology of the word. The nickname is also associated with the city of Portsmouth’s Royal Naval base.
Portsmouth badge
Portsmouth have made a whole host of variations to their official club badge across their history. Despite being formed in 1898, Pompey did not have a club badge until 1913.
The club currently adopt two badges, one for the players’ jerseys and the other for commercial purposes. These were introduced for the start of the 2018/19 campaign.
Displayed above on the Fratton Park gates is the commercial badge which features the traditional eight-pointed star and crescent moon on a blue shield background inside a larger circle. This is inspired directly by the official Portsmouth Coat of Arms.
Shown below is the badge which adorns the first-team squad and academy jerseys and is extremely similar to the commercial iteration minus the circular border.
Kit history
Portsmouth’s home kit saw a number of iterations across the first 50 years of the club’s history. The first-ever Portsmouth home jersey was a salmon pink colour with maroon accents.
This evolved over several decades until the club settled on a royal blue jersey, white shorts and red socks. These colpurs became synonymous with Pompey’s back-to-back English Football League title-winning campaigns in 1949 and 1950.
League history
Portsmouth have spent most of their history in the second tier of the English professional football sphere but have had major success in the top-flight.
Pompey won the English Football League First Division consecutively in 1949 and 1950 – it was undoubtedly their so-called ‘golden period’.
But the south coast club suffered a period of decline in the late 1970s and did not reach the Premier League until 2003, the first time they returned to the top-flight since 1988.
The Fratton Park outfit currently compete in EFL League One, the third tier of English football. They have been stuck there since 2017 following a tumultuous period financially for the club.
Portsmouth trophies
As mentioned, Portsmouth have won two top-flight English league titles. The rest of their trophy history includes two famous FA Cup triumphs in 1939 and 2008, as well as an FA Charity Shield win.
Pompey have a number of lower league crowns in their trophy cabinet too – five to be precise – most recently in 2016/17 when they won EFL League Two.
Players and managers
Portsmouth have been blessed with an array of incredible and loyal players and managers throughout the club’s history.
Pompey’s greatest-ever figure is undoubtedly Jimmy Dickinson, who served the club between 1946-1965 before going on to become manager for two years in 1977. Dickinson holds the record number of appearances made for Portsmouth as a player (828) and has a statue erected outside Fratton Park in his honour.
A whole host of names have made themselves legends of the club including Portsmouth’s record scorer Peter Harris, ‘Thunderboots’ inside forward Duggie Reid and long-serving goalkeeper Alan Knight.
Two of the club’s most successful managers were Bob Jackson and Harry Redknapp. Jackson brought two English league titles to Portsmouth while Redknapp secured promotion to the Premier League and won the FA Cup.