Primeira Liga

Organising body	Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (LPFP)
Founded	1934; 90 years ago (1934)
Country	Portugal
Confederation	UEFA
Number of teams	18 (since 2014–15)
Level on pyramid	1
Relegation to	Liga Portugal 2
Domestic cup(s)	Taça de Portugal Supertaça
League cup(s)	Taça da Liga
International cup(s)	UEFA Champions League UEFA Europa League UEFA Europa Conference League
Current champions	Benfica (38th title) (2022–23)
Most championships	Benfica (38 titles)
Most appearances	Manuel Fernandes (486)
Top goalscorer	Fernando Peyroteo (332)
TV partners	List of broadcasters
Website	ligaportugal.pt
Current: 2023–24 Primeira Liga

The Primeira Liga (Portuguese pronunciation: [pɾiˈmɐjɾɐ ˈliɣɐ]), also known as Liga Portugal, and officially known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, it is contested by 18 teams since the 2014–15 season, with the three lowest-placed teams relegated to the Liga Portugal 2 and replaced by the top-three non-reserve teams from this division.^[a]

Founded in 1934 as Campeonato da Liga da Primeira Divisão, it was named Campeonato Nacional da Primeira Divisão from 1938 until 1999, when it was changed to its current naming. Over 70 teams have competed in the Primeira Liga, but only five have been crowned champions. Among them, the "Big Three" teams – Benfica (38 wins), Porto (30) and Sporting CP (19) – have won all but two Primeira Liga titles; the other winners are Belenenses (1945–46) and Boavista (2000–01).^[2]

The Primeira Liga has increased its reputation in recent years, occupying the sixth place of UEFA's national league ranking, as of 2021. It broke into the top five for the first time in the 2011–12 season, passing the French Ligue 1, one of the historical "big five" European leagues, for the first time since 1990. The Primeira Liga also reached a world ranking of fourth according to IFFHS's 2011 ranking.^[3]

History

Before the Portuguese football reform of 1938, a competition on a round-basis was already being held – the Primeira Liga (Premier League) and the winners of that competition were named "League champions". Despite that, a Championship of Portugal in a knock-out cup format was the most popular and defined the Portuguese champion, although the winners of this competition no longer count as Portuguese football champions.^{[citation needed]}

Then, with the reform, a round-robin basis competition was implemented as the most important of the calendar and began defining the Portuguese champion. From 1938 to 1999, the name Campeonato Nacional da Primeira Divisão (National Championship of the First Division) or just Primeira Divisão (First Division), was used.^[4]

Porto won the inaugural edition of the new league championship and successfully defended the title in the next season. In 1939–40 the tournament was expanded from eight to ten clubs, due to an administrative battle between Porto and Académico do Porto, regarding a Regional Championship game that ended with only 43 minutes after the start, and later repeated (which FC Porto won) according to Porto FA decision. FPF came out with a decision to satisfy both clubs, expanding the championship to 10 teams (one more from Porto FA and another from Setúbal FA) and annulling the result from the repetition match. With this decision, FC Porto lost the Regional title and finished in 3rd, Leixões SC became the new regional champion, while Académico was 2nd place. All 3 teams qualified for 1939–40 Primeira Divisão.^[5]

In the 1941–42 season, it was decided to expand the championship from eight to ten teams to admit Braga FA and Algarve FA champions (until this season only the top teams from Porto, Coimbra, Lisboa and Setúbal were admitted).^[6] Porto finished the regional championship in third place again, which did not grant entry into the Primeira Liga.^[7] However, a second expand (from 10 to 12) in the same season was decided, which allowed the club to participate.^[8]

After the 1945–46 season, the qualifying system based on regional championships was abandoned and adopted a pyramid system, with relegations and promotions between the 3 tiers. The clubs in Primeira Divisão, Segunda Divisão and Terceira Divisão no longer had to play their district championships on the same season as they had been doing since the first seasons of the Liga.^[6] Below is a complete record of how many teams played in each season throughout the league's history;

• 8 clubs: 1934–1939
• 10 clubs: 1939–1940
• 8 clubs: 1940–1941
• 12 clubs: 1941–1942
• 10 clubs: 1942–1945
• 12 clubs: 1945–1946
• 14 clubs: 1946–1971
• 16 clubs: 1971–1987
• 20 clubs: 1987–1989
• 18 clubs: 1989–1990
• 20 clubs: 1990–1991
• 18 clubs: 1991–2006
• 16 clubs: 2006–2014
• 18 clubs: 2014–present

When the Portuguese League for Professional Football took control of the two nationwide leagues in 1999, it was renamed "Primeira Liga" (Premier League).^{[citation needed]}

Big Three

"The Big Three" (Portuguese: Os Três Grandes) is a nickname for the three most powerful sports clubs in Portugal. With the exception of Belenenses in 1945–46 and Boavista in 2000–01, only three clubs have won the Primeira Liga title – Benfica (38 times), Porto (30) and Sporting CP (19). These three clubs generally end up sharing the top three positions (thus, appearing more frequently in UEFA competitions) and are the only clubs to have played in every season of the competition.

These clubs dominate Portuguese football, and it has become typical for fans to support any of these teams as a "first club", with a local team probably coming afterwards, if at all. The "Big Three" have the highest average attendance ratings every season in Portugal, while many other teams, lacking support from the locals, have suffered from poor attendance. The lack of support for local teams is considered to be one of the main reasons why Portuguese Football registers one of the worst attendance ratings in European Football's best championships, alongside the broadcast of almost all the games on television. In other sports, the rivalry between the big clubs is also considerable and it usually leads to arguments between the fans and players.^[9]

Benfica is the club with most league, cup and league cup titles, as well as the most domestic titles (81) and overall titles won (83 or 84, if the Latin Cup is taken into account), including back-to-back European Cup trophies. Porto is the club with most Portuguese Super Cups and international titles won (7).

Sporting CP holds the third place when it comes to the most league and cup titles. Benfica is the only Portuguese club to have won two consecutive European Cup/UEFA Champions League titles, reaching ten European finals: seven European Cups and three UEFA Cup/Europa League, and was runner-up in two Intercontinental Cups. Porto is the only Portuguese club since 1987 to have won any international competition (excluding the UEFA Intertoto Cup), gathering a total of two European Cup/UEFA Champions Leagues, two UEFA Cup/Europa Leagues, one European Super Cup and two Intercontinental Cups and finished runner-up in one European Cup Winner's Cup and three UEFA Super Cups. Sporting won one European Cup Winner's Cup and was runner-up in one UEFA Cup. Apart from the big three, Braga won the last UEFA Intertoto Cup and was runner-up in one UEFA Europa League.^[10][11]

Sponsored names

Galp Energia acquired the naming rights to the league in 2002, titling the division SuperLiga GalpEnergia. A four-year deal with the Austrian sports betting bwin was announced on 18 August 2005 amid questioning by the other gambling authorities in Portugal (the Santa Casa da Misericórdia and the Portuguese Casinos Association), who claimed to hold the exclusive rights to legal gambling games in Portuguese national territory. After holding the name Liga betandwin.com for the 2005–06 season, the name was changed to bwin LIGA in July 2006.^[12][13]

From the 2008–09 season to the 2009–10 season the league was named Liga Sagres due to sponsorship from Sagres beer. In 2010, they renewed the sponsorship from Sagres, but also got the sponsorship from ZON Multimédia. The league was named Liga ZON Sagres until 2013–14 after the sponsorship agreement between Sagres, ZON (now NOS) and the league ended. In 2015, the league was named Liga NOS until the 2020–21 season.^[14] From 2021 to 2023, it was known Liga Portugal Bwin. Since 2023, it is called Liga Portugal Betclic.

Sponsorship names for seasons

• 2002–2005: SuperLiga GalpEnergia
• 2005–2006: Liga betandwin.com
• 2006–2008: bwin LIGA
• 2008–2010: Liga Sagres
• 2010–2014: Liga ZON Sagres
• 2014–2021: Liga NOS
• 2021–2023: Liga Portugal Bwin
• 2023–: Liga Portugal Betclic

Official match ball

Competition

Since the 2014–15 season, there are 18 clubs in the Primeira Liga, up from 16 in the previous seasons. During the course of a season, each club plays all teams twice – once at their home stadium and once at their opponent's stadium – for a total of 34 games. At the end of each season, the two lowest placed teams are relegated to the Segunda Liga and the top two teams from Segunda Liga are promoted to the Primeira Liga.

Qualification for European competitions

The top teams in Primeira Liga qualify for the UEFA Champions League, with the top two teams entering the group stage directly. The third placed team enters the playoffs for the group stage of the UEFA Champions League; if they fail to qualify, they enter the UEFA Europa League, along with the fourth placed team and the Taça de Portugal cup winners. If the Taça de Portugal cup winners qualify for the UEFA Champions League through league placing, the berth is given to the fifth placed team.

UEFA ranking

UEFA League Ranking as of the 2023–24 season:^[17]

Clubs

Braga

Famalicão

Gil Vicente

Moreirense

V. Guimarães

Vizela

Lisbon

Estoril

Estrela Amadora

Boavista

Porto

Rio Ave

Farense

Portimonense

Arouca

Chaves

Lisbon teams:
Benfica
Casa Pia
Sporting CP

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Location of teams in 2023–24 Primeira Liga (Mainland)

Benfica

Sporting

Casa Pia

Est. Amadora

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Location of teams in 2023–24 Primeira Liga (Lisbon area)

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