Southampton Football Club is a professional football club based in Southampton , Hampshire , England. The club competes in the Championship , the second tier of English football . Their home ground since 2001 has been St Mary's Stadium , before which it was based at The Dell . The team play in red and white shirts. Their nickname is "The Saints" because of the club's beginnings as a church football team at St Mary's Church . Southampton shares a long-standing South Coast derby rivalry with Portsmouth , in part due to geographic proximity and both cities' respective maritime histories .
