Portuguese Primeira Liga

The Primeira Liga is Portugal's top professional football division, and until 1989 the only professional football league in the country. With clubs like Benfica, Porto and Sporting, it has always been one of Europe's biggest leagues. These three teams have won practically all titles since 1938-39, when the competition had its inaugural season.

History

“Primeira Liga” is a name that was first used in 1934, four years before the official establishment of a national league in Portugal. When football in the country was reformed in 1938, the new competition was named “Campeonato Nacional da Primeira Divisão” (National Championship of the First Division) or simply “Primeira Divisão” (First Division), a name that remained in use until 1999.

Porto were the first champions, they retained their title next season, and have remained one of Portugal's “Big Three”, as they, Benfica and Sporting are called.

Until 1941, only teams from Lisbon, Porto, Coimbra and Setúbal took part in the competition. That year, two clubs from Braga and Algarve were admitted. The league finally acquired a more nation-wide character in 1945, when any team from whichever region of the country could win a spot in the First Division, as long as they earned promotion from the Second Division.

Benfica are the most decorated club in the country. They have won the championship title more times than their two biggest rivals, Porto and Sporting. They have also lifted the Taça de Portugal trophy (Cup of Portugal, the second biggest national football competition) many more times than any other team.

Benfica were also the first ones to finish a season undefeated, in 1973, winning 28 of their 30 matches, and drawing just twice. They repeated their accomplishment finishing without a single loss the 1977-78 season as well (21 wins, nine draws), but ironically they lost the championship title to Porto.

Benfica are holders of two more records; combining the second half of the 1971-72 season, and the first half on next season, they won 29 games in a row. Also, they have remained undefeated longer than any other team in Portugal's championship, for 56 matches, from October 1976 to September 1978.

Porto as well have finished the championship undefeated twice, and in 1999 they became the first club to win the title five seasons in a row.

Benfica, Porto and Sporting are not just the three teams that have won almost all championship titles. They are also the only clubs that have never been relegated, the ones with the biggest stadiums, as well as the biggest average attendances. Furthermore, historically, they have been the main player providers to Portugal's national team.

The name “Primeira Liga” made its comeback substituting “Primeira Divisão” as the league's title in 1999. Three years later, it started getting combined with a sponsor's name, adding another source of income for the clubs and the “Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional” itself. More commonly known as “Liga Portugal”, or by its acronym, “LPFP”, it is the governing body of Portugal's two professional leagues (including the second division).

League system

Primeira Liga is the name of the current top level of the Portuguese football league system. A second division (originally referred to as Segunda Divisão de Honra) with professional status was founded in 1990. An overview of the current league system in Portugal is presented in table 1.

Table 1. Portugal football tiers

Club	Tier
Primeira Liga	1
LigaPro	2
Campeonato de Portugal	3

Campeonato de Portugal (former Portuguese Second Division) is a non-professional league that has been the third tier since 2013. Below that tier are groups of leagues divided by districts.

Taça da Liga

In 2007, Taça da Liga (Portuguese League Cup) was founded. It is a competition between teams from the two top domestic leagues, Primeira Liga and LigaPro. Vitória de Setúbal became the winners of the first edition, played in the 2007-2008 season.

Stats

Teams with most titles

Statistics of all Portuguese clubs that have won the top league, concerning the period 1939-2024.

Table 2. Clubs and Primeira Liga titles

Club	Titles	1st title
Benfica	38	1935-36
Porto	30	1934-35
Sporting	18	1940-41
Belenenses	1	1945-46
Boavista	1	2000-2001

Beside these five Portuguese champions, Académica, Vitória de Setúbal and Braga have been runner-ups.

In European elite football, the Portuguese league is one of the most skewed in the way it is dominated by a few clubs. This became more apparent than ever in 1973 when Benfica won the top division after 28 won and 2 drawn games. Porto carried out a similar achievement by winning 27 and drawing 3 during the 2010-2011 season.

Teams with most Primeira Liga participation

Statistics of the Portugal clubs that have participated more than 50 times in the national top division during the period 1934-2020.

Table 3. Clubs and league participation

Club	Participation
Benfica	86
Porto	86
Sporting	86
Belenenses	77
Vitória de Guimarães	75
Vitória de Setúbal	72
Académica	64
Braga	64
Boavista	57

Between the first season and the last, in total 72 clubs has participating in top division of the Portuguese league.

Audience

Capacity of Primeira Liga stadiums

Table 4 shows the capacity of all Primeira Liga club stadiums (based on the teams that participated in the league season 2016–2017). Benficas's Estaádio da Luz is the biggest in the league with capacity of almost 65,000 people.

Table 4. The stadium capacities in the Primeira Liga season 16-17

Team	Stadium name	Capacity
Arouca	Estádio Municipal de Arouca	5,000
Belenenses	Estádio do Restelo	19,300
Benfica	Estádio da Luz	64,642
Boavista	Estádio do Bessa XXI	28,263
Braga	Estádio Municipal de Braga	30,154
Chaves	Estadio Municipal	8,000
Estoril	Estádio António Coimbra da Mota	8,000
Feirense	Estádio Marcolino de Castro	5,401
Marítimo	Estádio do Marítimo	10,500
Moreirense	Parque Joaquim Almeida Freitas	6,100
Nacional	Estádio da Madeira	5,142
Paços de Ferreira	Estádio Capital do Móvel	5,250
Porto	Estádio do Dragão	50,035
Rio Ave	Estádio do Rio Ave	12,815
Sporting	Estádio José Alvalade	50,095
Tondela	Estádio João Cardoso	5,000
Vitória de Guimarães	Estádio D. Afonso Henriques	30,146
Vitória de Setúbal	Estádio do Bonfim	18,692

There are some other stadiums in Portugal with high capacity. Estádio Municipal de Aveiro (homeground for Beira-Mar) and Estádio Cidade de Coimbra (homeground for Académica) has both capacities over 30,000.

Players

Top goalscorers

The league's all-time leading goalscorer is Fernando Peyroteo with 332 league goals between 1937 and 1949. During his career he exclusively played for Sporting CP and is noted for 197 leagues appearances, that make his goal ratio to 1,7.

The legendary Eusébio holds the record in being the league’s top scorer on most occasion, seven times. He played most of his career in Benfica for which he did 317 goals on 301 appearances, the goal frequency culminated in the 1967-68 season with 42 goals.

Famous players

Some of the most famous players that have participated in the Portuguese Primeira Liga are:

• Eusébio
• Hernâni Ferreira da Silva
• Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink
• Karel Poborský
• Deco
• Vítor Baía
• Javier Saviola
• Ángel Di María
• João Pinto
• João Moutinho
• Diego Costa

Since 1991 the Portuguese Golden Ball award is given to one player in the Primeira Liga every year. João Pinto and Mário Jardel are the only players to receive the award twice.

By Dimitris Basias

References:
https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Süper_Lighttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primeira_Liga
https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primeira_Liga
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liga_Portuguesa_de_Futebol_Profissional
http://ligaportugal.pt
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primeira_Liga