Portugal Primeira Liga

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.^[]

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.

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.

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). Porto finished the regional championship in third place again, which did not grant entry into the Primeira Liga. However, a second expand (from 10 to 12) in the same season was decided, which allowed the club to participate.

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. 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).^[]

"Big Three" performance over the last 10 seasons
Season	Benfica	Porto	Sporting
2013–14	1	3	2
2014–15	1	2	3
2015–16	1	3	2
2016–17	1	2	3
2017–18	2	1	3
2018–19	1	2	3
2019–20	2	1	4
2020–21	3	2	1
2021–22	3	1	2
2022–23	1	2	4
2023–24	2	3	1

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 (20). 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.

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.

S.C. Braga has finished runner-up once, third three times, and fourth twelve times during the last twenty seasons, not quite breaking into "The Big Three."

Official match ball

2002–2004: Adidas Fevernova
2004–2006: Adidas Roteiro
2006–2007: Adidas +Teamgeist
2008: Adidas Europass
2008–2009: Adidas Europass Portugal
2009–2010: Adidas Terrapass Liga Sagres
2010–2011: Adidas Jabulani
2011: Adidas Speedcell
2012: Adidas Tango 12
2013: Adidas Cafusa
2014: Adidas Brazuca
2015: Adidas Conext15
2016: Adidas Errejota
2016–18: Nike Ordem
2018–19: Nike Merlin
2019–20: Select Brillant Super TB
2020–21: Select Brillant Super TB
2021–22: Select Brillant Super TB
2023–24: Puma Orbita

Date	R	Home v Away	-
09/27 17:30	6	Estoril v Benfica	2-3
09/26 19:30	6	Sporting v FC Porto	1-1
09/22 19:00	5	Academica v Estoril	2-2
09/21 19:15	5	FC Porto v Boavista	0-0
09/21 17:00	5	Gil Vicente v Sporting	0-4
09/21 16:00	5	Benfica v Moreirense	3-1
09/21 15:00	5	Rio Ave v Arouca	1-2
09/21 15:00	5	Belenenses v Maritimo	1-0
09/20 19:15	5	Nacional v Braga	1-1
09/20 15:00	5	Penafiel v Vitoria Setubal	2-0
09/19 19:30	5	Guimaraes v Pacos Ferreira	1-1
09/14 18:15	4	Estoril v Nacional	2-1
09/14 16:00	4	Guimaraes v FC Porto	1-1
09/14 16:00	4	Pacos Ferreira v Gil Vicente	1-1
09/14 15:00	4	Maritimo v Penafiel	2-0
09/14 15:00	4	Boavista v Academica	1-0
09/13 19:15	4	Sporting v Belenenses	1-1
09/13 17:00	4	Arouca v Braga	1-0
09/13 15:00	4	Moreirense v Rio Ave	1-1
09/12 19:30	4	Vitoria Setubal v Benfica	0-5
09/01 19:00	3	Rio Ave v Boavista	4-0
08/31 18:00	3	Benfica v Sporting	1-1
08/31 17:00	3	FC Porto v Moreirense	3-0
08/31 17:00	3	Nacional v Arouca	2-0
08/31 16:00	3	Penafiel v Pacos Ferreira	0-1
08/31 15:00	3	Gil Vicente v Maritimo	1-2
08/30 19:30	3	Braga v Estoril	2-1
08/30 17:00	3	Belenenses v Guimaraes	0-3
08/29 19:00	3	Academica v Vitoria Setubal	1-1
08/25 19:00	2	Moreirense v Braga	0-0

Portugal Primeira Liga

Teams

Wikipedia - Primeira Liga

History

Big Three

Sponsored names

Official match ball