Early history

Monument in Camacha, celebrating the first ever organised football game in Portugal

Football started to gain popularity in Portugal in the late 19th century, brought by Portuguese students who returned from England.^[1]

The first organized game in the country took place in 1875 in Camacha, Madeira, organized by Madeira-born Harry Hinton, who brought a football from England where he was studying. Popularity quickly spread across the island. Harry would go on to become honorary president of C.S. Marítimo.^{[2] [3]}

A memorial to the first football match played on mainland Portugal in Cascais in October 1888

The Pinto Basto brothers, Guilherme, Eduardo and Frederico, were the fundamental heads behind its spread in mainland Portugal. They had been introduced to football while studying in England at St George's College and Eduardo played a decisive role in the development of football in Portugal and particularly in Lisbon when he ordered a series of footballs from England, which he distributed to various military units, thus giving a huge boost to the practice of this sport.^[4] On the other hand, Guilherme organized an exhibition in Cascais in October 1888, the first known football match in mainland Portugal, which was a rehearsal for a more serious and competitive match organized three months later, on 22 January 1889, held in Lisbon where today's Campo Pequeno bullring is located.^[4][5][6] It was contested between the Portuguese noblemen, who were made up of the best players from the 1888 game, and a group of English workers living in Lisboa, who were made up of employees of Cabo Submarino, Casa Graham and other English houses installed in Lisbon.^[4][5] Consequently, football started attracting the attention of high society, distinguished by the Luso-British rivalry.^[7][4]

The first football club to have been founded in Portugal was Club Lisbonense in 1892, which was founded by the Pinto Basto brothers together with other football pioneers in the city such as the Vilar brothers (Carlos and Afonso) and Paiva Raposo. Club Lisbonense played its first games against the English from Carcavelos, who would eventually organize themselves into a Club, the Carcavelos Club.^[4] These two groups were the first promoters of football in Lisbon, and football began taking root in the city, especially among the youth, thus the game soon reached colleges and so, Lisbonense and Carcavelos are joined by a team made up of students from Colégio Villar.^[4] The three groups began to play several matches against each other and were eventually joined by a team of Braço de Prata, which included several Englishmen and build-up an Invictus status. However, a certain Clube de Lisboa committed the feat of beating the "invincible" team of Braço de Prata by 2–0 in 1903.^[4] In April 1893, the Estrela Foot-Ball Club appears, captained by Commander Joaquim Costa.^[4]

Then came the presentation of a football team from the Club Tauromático Group, which again included the three brothers Pinto Basto (Guilherme, Eduardo, and Frederico), among others, such as Hugo O'Neil, who had played in the 1888 game.^[4] At the end of January 1893, however, the Group of Club Tauromático becomes the Grupo dos Irmãos Pinto Basto (English: Pinto Basto Brothers Group). Moreover, the Pinto Basto brothers, in addition to being part of and playing for several clubs already, had their own group, the "Foot-Ball Club Swifts", where Guilherme was the captain and his brother Eduardo was the sub-captain.^[4]

On 28 September 1893, Foot-Ball Club do Porto was reportedly organized in Porto, which was the first football club to be established in the North of the country (according to some sources, it is the club currently known as FC Porto,^[8] including the club itself since 1982, while other sources claim it to be two separate entities. According to the club's history book prior to 1982, FC Porto was founded on 2 August 1906).^[9] In February 1894, the students of Casa Pia in Lisbon organize their football group. Other clubs who emerged around this time were Foot-Ball Académico, in 1895, and Clube de Campo de Ourique, in 1896.^[4] This was followed by a period of some lack of interest in football (1896–99), due to the lack of fields, goals, equipment, and the rudeness of its practice, with the local press even starting to call it the "kickback" game. During this period it was Casa Pia, which emerged in 1892, who came to play the most important role in the expansion and progress of football.^[4]

The first cup match in the country was held in Porto on 2 March 1894, and it was attended by King Carlos and Queen Amelia.^[10] This is possibly the first match in which extra time was played as the royal couple arrived too late to see the first half and the Queen demanded that the game continue after the end, because she was enjoying it so much.^[7]

By century's end, associations such as Clube Lisbonense, Carcavelos Sport Club, Braço de Prata, Real Ginásio Clube Português, Estrela Futebol Clube, Futebol Académico, Campo de Ourique, Foot-Ball Club do Porto, and Sport Clube Vianense had been founded.

The failed attempts to reorganize Club Lisbonense (1892) and Grupo Estrela (1893) paved the way for the appearance of the Club Internacional de Foot-Ball (CIF) on 8 December 1902, which was the natural extension of the Grupo dos Irmãos Pinto Basto and the Foot-Ball Club Swits. CIF was the first Portuguese club to play abroad, defeating Madrid Fútbol Clube in 1907 in Madrid.^[4]

On 31 March 1914, the three regional associations that existed in Portugal (Lisbon, Portalegre, and Porto) merged to create a national association called a União Portuguesa de Futebol, the predecessor of the current national association, the Portuguese Football Federation, which was formed on 28 May 1926.

Golden age

The Portuguese were one of the first Europeans to explore Africa. They have influenced a lot of their former colonies, notably in the realm of football. This was mostly due to the concept of Lusotropicalism, which became popularized during the tenure of António Salazar. The Portuguese enthusiasm for football led to the spread of the sport into its former overseas colonies of Angola, Mozambique, Guiné-Bissau, Cape Verde, S. Tomé and Principe, Goa, Macau, and East-Timor. Eventually, Portugal would attempt to integrate their colonies, which would lead to them having many African players in the teams on the mainland. Introduced in the colonies as early as the 19th century, football became increasingly. By the 1950s many Africans would support football teams on the mainland. The popularity of the game in the colonies also meant that there were many people who wanted to play it professionally. Many top players from the former colonies have represented Portugal at the international level, as well as playing for many clubs in the various tiers of the national and international leagues, most notably in the past the likes of Fernando Peyroteo, Matateu, Hilário, Costa Pereira, Coluna, Eusébio, and Abel Xavier.^[11]

Recent history

List of teams (2022–23 season)

^[17]

List of teams by major honours

Below is listed every team to have won any of the major domestic competitions (organized by LPFP and FPF) and international trophies organized by UEFA and FIFA. (Thus, Benfica's Latin Cup, although created by FIFA, is not included.)

Bold denotes club with the most number of trophies in specified category.