Soccer in Portugal

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Logo of the Portuguese Football Association

Football isa popular sport in Portugal . Both the well-known club teams, namely FC Porto , Sporting and Benfica Lisbon , and their juniors, as well as the Portuguese national team were successful. The biggest success of the senior national team was winning the 2016 European Football Championship in France . The most successful years of Portuguese football were the 1960s and 1990s to date.

The national football association is the Federação Portuguesa de Futebol , which was founded on March 31, 1914. The country hosted the 2004 European Football Championship .

In addition to "normal" football, futsal is very popular in Portugal, so regular tournaments and championships are held, and in 2007 the European championship was held in Porto and Matosinhos .

The leagues

The 1st Portuguese professional league (Primeira Liga)

The 2nd division - Segunda Liga

The 3rd league - Campeonato Nacional de Seniores

Since 2017

Since 2017, the third division, still known as Campeonato Nacional de Seniores , has been playing in five groups of 16 teams each. The top five and three of the runners-up play for promotion to the second division after the season.

2013 to 2017

Since the 2013/2014 season, the third league has been called Campeonato Nacional de Seniores (German: national championship for seniors or adults) and is played in eight groups, Série A to Série H , each with ten teams, which are regionally composed according to latitude . Clubs from Madeira are assigned to the northern series, clubs from the Azores to the southern series. The former, underlying fourth Liga IIIª Divisão was dissolved and merged with the Campeonato Nacional de Seniores . The Campeonato Nacional de Seniores is thus the lowest national division in Portugal, above the divisions of the district associations. In the first group stage, the ten teams each play a final table in the first and second leg. The two best placed qualify for the promotion round, the remaining eight of the individual groups are grouped into eight new groups of eight teams each in the relegation round.

The promotion round will be played in two groups of eight teams each in the first and second leg, at the end of which the first placed will be promoted directly to the Segunda League, while (2014–2016) the second placed will determine the third promoted player in a further round trip . After the 2016/2017 season, the two runners-up played against the fourth and fifth from bottom of the 2nd league (four clubs were relegated directly from this; the 2nd league was thus reduced to 20 clubs).

In the eight groups of the relegation round , after the first and second leg, the two lowest, i.e. the eighth and seventh-placed teams in each group, are determined to be relegated to the top tier of the district associations, while the sixth-placed teams play another relegation round to gain the four other relegated teams to determine. This innovation is intended to further reduce the costs of the clubs through the shorter distances in match operations.

Before 2013: IIª Divisão as 3rd division

The third division was called IIª Divisão until 2012/2013 and was divided into three groups, Norte , Centro , and Sul . In each group there were 16 teams that played the championship in a round trip. The first place in each of the three groups then played each against each other in the first and second leg. The first placed was master of the Segunda Divisão and rose together with the second placed in the Segunda League . Before the establishment of the single-track Segunda League in 1990, the Segunda Divisão was the second division of Portugal in this form and played the promoted to the first division.

Before 2013: IIIª Divisão as 4th division

After the end of the 2012/2013 season, the IIIª Divisão was dissolved and merged with the previous third division ( IIª Divisão ) to form the Campeonato Nacional de Seniores . This third division is now the lowest national division in the country.

Until then, the fourth division was divided into groups A , B , C , D , E , F , Azores and Madeira . Twelve teams played in the groups of continental Portugal (A to F) and Madeira, while ten teams competed in the Azores group.

After a round-trip round, a promotion round was formed in each group of continental Portugal (A-F) from the first six, and a relegation round was formed from the last six, with the teams starting the promotion round with half the number of points from the end of the season. After the first and second leg, the first of the promotion round in each of the six groups rose to the Segunda Divisão , while the last-placed player in the relegation round was relegated to the highest regional division of the association in the respective district ( Campeonato District ). From each of the groups A – F, one team rose and one was relegated at the end of each season.

In the Madeira group of the IIIª Divisão , a promotion round was also played out after the first and second round among the first six (also with halved points at the beginning), the winner of which only rose directly to the IIª Divisão , if there were not already six teams from Madeira played. In the case, the promotion candidate of the Madeira group of the IIIª Divisão played in a relegation match against the worst-placed representative Madeira of the IIª Divisão in a round trip. The winner appeared in the IIª Divisão the following season . The number of promoters from the IIIª Divisão to the IIª Divisão also determined the relegated members from the Madeira group of the IIIª Divisão : after the six worst-placed teams in the IIIª Divisão had played a round of relegation back and forth at the end of the season at least the two worst placed, with each relegated from the IIª Divisão to the Madeira group of the IIIª Divisão , another club was relegated to the top regional division in Madeira.

In the Azores group, the top four played a promotion round after the first and second round (with the assumption of the full number of points at the end of the season), the winners of which rose to the IIª Divisão , unless six teams from the Azores already played there. The same rules applied here as in the case of Madeira. The six worst-placed players played the relegation round, and the same rules applied here as in Madeira: the two worst-placed teams were relegated, plus one more team for each relegated group from the IIª Divisão to the Azores group of the IIIª Divisão .

With the end of this fourth national league and the introduction of the Campeonato Nacional de Seniores as the third league and lowest national league, the aim was to further reduce the costs for the clubs in the league.

Juniors

Almost traditionally, Portugal has been successfully developing young talent, which is expressed on the one hand by winning titles at major tournaments and on the other hand by producing individual players that are in demand internationally.

The juniors achieved the following successes:

  • U20 World Champion (2) - 1989, 1991
  • U18 European Champion (2) - 1994, 1999
  • U17 European Champion (1) - 2003
  • U16 European Champion (4) - 1989, 1995, 1996, 2000

See also:

Women's soccer

After the Taça Nacional (German: national cup) was played since 1985, the nationwide league operation was introduced in 1993. Since then, the Campeonato Nacional de Futebol Feminino (German: national championship) has been the top division of women's club football in Portugal.

In 2003, the association introduced the national women's cup competition with the Taça de Portugal de Futebol Feminino .

Since 2015, the Cup winners and championship team of the Campeonato Nacional have also played a Supercup , the Portuguese Football Supercup for women .

The Portuguese national soccer team for women has not yet qualified for the finals of a world or European championship since it was founded in the early 1980s. See also the list of international matches for the Portuguese national football team .

With the Algarve Cup , one of the most important international football tournaments has been taking place in Portugal since 1994.

National titles

Typical clay figures in a Portuguese shop that illustrate the traditional rivalry between the three big clubs

societies

The three clubs FC Porto , Sporting Lisbon and Benfica Lisbon are the dominant clubs in the country's football scene. Belenenses Lisbon (1946) and Boavista Porto (2001) were the only clubs besides the three to win the national championship since the first division was introduced in 1934. The Lisbon Derby (Benfica-Sporting) and the FC Porto-Benfica Derby are considered the most explosive derbies in Portuguese club football. Sporting Porto and derbies between northern clubs, especially from Braga, Guimarães and Porto, are also considered to be particularly tense, as are the encounters between clubs from Madeira and continental Portugal, and the local derbies in Funchal, especially between Nacional Funchal and Marítimo Funchal .

Académica Coimbra won the first national cup in 1939 and was able to repeat this in 2012. In addition to the five clubs that also won championship titles, apart from the Académica, only six other clubs have won the national cup so far (as of 2016): Vitória Setúbal (3 ×), Sporting Braga (2 ×), Leixões SC (1961), CF. Estrela Amadora (1990), SC Beira-Mar (1999), and Vitória Guimarães (2013).

→ See also: Overview of Portuguese football clubs

Luís Figo

Personalities

Among the many internationally known players in the history of Portuguese football are Eusébio u. a. as the top scorer of the 66 World Cup , Luís Figo as FIFA World Player of the Year 2001 , and Cristiano Ronaldo , who has become known as a multiple world footballer .

→ See also: Overview of Portuguese football players

The polarizing successful coach José Mourinho and the international referee Pedro Proença are other internationally known names in Portuguese football.

Culture

Books and films

A large number of football-themed book publications are available on the Portuguese market. The numerous Portuguese titles are regularly joined by Brazilian titles.

In addition to the DVD releases, especially of the three big clubs on their history, and individual season reviews and recordings of important games, Portuguese cinema is also repeatedly dedicated to football. Examples of the numerous films include:

Newspapers

There are three daily football newspapers in Portugal. A Bola , which is related to Benfica, is the country's largest circulation newspaper and also maintains an important website with the abola.pt website. Record , which is related to Sporting, and O Jogo , which is attributable to FC Porto, are the other daily football newspapers. In addition, all regional and national newspapers have, in some cases extensive, editorial reports on football events in the country.

watch TV

Depending on the current bid for the broadcasting rights, the most important league games and international team and national team games can be viewed on one of the four free-to-air channels nationwide. In addition, the cable broadcaster Sport TV shows a large number of sports broadcasts with a clear focus on football on its channels.

On all four national television channels, football is an essential part of the coverage in the daily news programs, which are up to two hours long in the evening. In addition, football discussions with changing celebrities and regular commentators are shown, especially after match days.

Fan culture

Organized fan groups have been known in Portugal since the 1930s at the latest ( Esquadrão Azul e Branco of FC Porto, 1934). From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s in particular, there were frequent riots by hooligans in the league. Especially at the Lisbon derby and the clashes of the big clubs from Porto and Lisbon, but also at various northern derbies, for example with the participation of Vitória Guimarães , these made a name for themselves. The organized fan groups of the ultra movement , from whose ranks many hooligans came and still come from, are still the dominant factor in the country's fan culture to this day. With a growing number of members and through their own membership fees, merchandise sales and publications, they have gained some economic and political influence in the clubs, albeit not as much as in some other countries, such as Italy.

The oldest ultra grouping in Portugal is the Juventude Leonina, founded in 1976 (German: Youth of the Lions, with reference to the heraldic animal of Sporting Lisbon), called Juve Leo for short . The group with the largest number of members are the Super Dragões (German: Super Dragons, alluding to the heraldic animal of FC Porto) with over 5000, according to other sources already 10,000 members. These groups are called Claque in Portugal , although the term Torcida from Brazil is also known. The Torcida Verde fan club, founded by Sporting-Ultras in 1984, is probably the best-known example in the country. The phenomenon of politically right-wing extremist football fans in fan groups is also known in Portugal. It is particularly present among the violent fans of the three big clubs and some clubs in northern Portugal. Among the supporters of Vitória Setúbal , however, an above-average number of left-wing fan groups are known.

In 2010, the Portuguese police had 4,150 names in their file of violent football fans, of which at least 600 were classified as particularly violent.

Selection of well-known fan clubs (by club)
  • Académica Coimbra: Mancha Negra
  • Belenenses: Fúria Azul
  • Benfica Lisbon: Diabos Vermelhos , No Name Boys
  • Boavista Porto: Panteras Negras - Ultras 84
  • FC Porto: Super Dragões , Força Azul , Esquadra Azul , Colectivo Ultras 95
  • Salgueiros: Alma Salgueirista
  • Sporting Lisbon: Juve Leo , Torcida Verde , Directivo Ultras XXI, Brigada Ultras Sporting
  • Vitória Guimarães: Insane Guys , White Angels , Galáticos do Minho
  • Vitória Setúbal: VIII Exército

The most famous all-female fan groups include:

  • Benfica Lisbon: Cheers Benfica
  • Sporting Lisbon: Leoa Verde
  • Nacional Madeira: Claque Feminina

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reguliaren der Liga (PDF; 607 kB) on the website of the association, accessed on September 15, 2013
  2. ^ Short article of March 31, 2010 in the news magazine Visão , accessed on December 2, 2013