Sporting Clube de Portugal

Football club infobox
clubname = Sporting Clube de Portugal


fullname = Sporting Clube de Portugal | shortname = Sporting
nickname = "Leões" (Lions)|"Lagartos" (Lizards- used by non-supporters)
founded = 1 July1906
ground = Estádio José Alvalade|Lisbon, Portugal| capacity = 52,000
chairman = flagicon|Portugal Filipe Soares Franco
manager = flagicon|Portugal Paulo Bento
league = Portuguese Liga
season = 2007–08
position =Portuguese Liga, 2nd
shirtsupplier = Puma
shirtsponsors = Portugal Telecom / BES / TMN

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Sporting Clube de Portugal (pron. IPA2|'spɔɾtĩg 'klub(ɨ) dɨ puɾtu'gaɫ, referred to coloquially as Sporting, Sporting CP or, erroneously, Sporting Lisbon, is a Portuguese sports club based in Lisbon. The club is particularly renowned for its football department. With more than 100,000 registered club members [pt icon Pedro Jorge da Cunha - [http://www.maisfutebol.iol.pt/noticia.php?div_id=1676&id=678591 Finanças do futebol] , 5th May 2006 - MaisFutebol] , Sporting is one of the most successful and popular sports clubs in Portugal. Its teams, athletes and supporters are often nicknamed "Os Leões" ( _en. The Lions).

Along with Benfica and FC Porto, Sporting is one of "The Big Three" sports clubs in Portugal.It is the club with the greatest number of medals won by its athletes in Olympic competitions, and the second most successful at the European level regarding the number of trophies won in every sport, after F.C. Barcelona.Fact|date=October 2008

History

The club's foundation was instigated by José Holtreman Roquette (José of Alvalade), with the financial support of his grandfather, Alfredo Augusto das Neves Holtreman, Viscount of Alvalade. The Viscount of Alvalade was the first President of Sporting Clube de Portugal. The club was established in 1902 as "Sport Club de Belas", which became "Campo Grande Sporting Club" in 1904, and took its definitive name of Sporting Clube de Portugal in 1906.

Name

Within Portugal, the club is often referred to simply as "Sporting". Outside Portugal, the most commonly used designation for the club is "Sporting Lisbon". In the past the club has attempted (unsuccessfully) to shed this name, particularly through ex-president Sousa Cintra and his staff, in an effort to become known abroad by its correct name. Despite this, the non-Portuguese media still uses "Sporting Lisbon" (or equivalent) due to precedent (other accepted examples of English language alterations being Inter Milan, AC Milan and Bayern Munich) and to avoid confusion with other clubs such as Sporting Braga, Sporting Covilhã, Sporting Farense and Sporting Gijón, instead of using a more accurate name like "Sporting Portugal".

Organization

Sporting is a multisports club, composed by many different competitive departments, including football, futsal, athletics and handball, among others. The football department is the largest in terms of budget and popularity. The other sports departments of the club (the ranks of which include Olympic winners and World Champions) are managed by specialized professionals according to each sport's specificity and have their own decision making bodies.

Football

Football is the most popular sport in Portugal and the Portuguese Football League the most important sports championship, where the top teams earn a place in the most demanding and profitable European football competitions - the European Champions League and the UEFA Cup. The club's football team has won 18 national championship titles, 15 national cups and the former Cup Winners' Cup in 1964.

Sporting has been a major contender in the Portuguese League since its inception. The club's football department has developed an increasingly professionalized profile which operates in an increasingly competitive environment in both Portugal and Europe. In 1998, the football department of the club was reorganized into a company and issued stock on the market. Since then Sporting - Sociedade Desportiva de Futebol, S.A.D. is a publicly traded company which is listed on the Euronext Lisbon stock exchange.

Facilities

Stadium

Sporting boasts a new stadium, Estádio José Alvalade, built for the 2004 European Football Championship. Sporting also has a world-class football training facility ("Academia Sporting" in Alcochete), which accommodated Portugal during the Euro 2004 competition, and has helped to produce some of the best Portuguese players, such as Luís Figo, Luís Nani, Cristiano Ronaldo and Ricardo Quaresma, among many others.

It was designed by Tomás Taveira and was classified by UEFA as a 5-star stadium, enabling it to host finals of major UEFA events. This stadium - originally projected to hold only 40,000 spectators at any given time - has a capacity of 52,000 and was acoustically engineered as a venue for major concerts. Its official opening was on 6 August2003 when Sporting played and beat Manchester United 3-1. It also hosted the 2005 UEFA Cup final between Sporting and CSKA Moscow, which CSKA won 3-1.

The stadium was also one of the stadia that hosted matches during Euro 2004. There were five games played in Estádio José Alvalade, one of them being the semi-final between Portugal and The Netherlands, which Portugal won 2-1.

Sporting's youth academy

Famous for its football youth academy system which features a range of well-equipped facilities and is one of the most renowned in the world, Sporting has continuously developed many world class footballers. Some of its most notable home-bred footballers include João Moutinho, Miguel Veloso, Yannick Djaló, Bruno Pereirinha, Rui Patrício, Adrien Silva, Daniel Carriço and Marco Caneira in the current squad, Paulo Futre (retired), Luís Figo (Inter Milan), Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani (Manchester United), as well as Luis Boa Morte (West Ham United). The long list of valuable players who developed their skills in the youth academy of the club, include other noted footballers such as Dani Carvalho (retired) who played for Ajax Amsterdam, former FC Barcelona player Ricardo Quaresma (who joined Inter Milan in 2008), Simão Sabrosa (Atlético de Madrid), Hugo Viana (Valencia) and Miguel (Valencia, although he only played for the youth squads, before moving to Estrela da Amadora). Sporting's youth academy was considered by Luiz Felipe Scolari (was Portugal's national coach, now Manages Chelsea FC) and José Pekerman (former Argentina national coach) as one of the best sports academies in the world. It was also the home training ground for the Portuguese national football team during Euro 2004. A great number of European clubs choose the Sporting's "Academia" for training in the off-season.

The Academy (known as the "Academia de Alcochete") has been renamed Sporting/Puma Academy ("Academia Sporting/Puma") to reflect the sponsoring and naming contract signed by the club and the sports brand Puma in 2006; the contract will last until 2012.

Honours

Portuguese Liga
* Winners: (18) 1940–41 1943–44 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1957–58 1961–62 1965–66 1969–70 1973–74 1979–80 1981–82 1999–2000 2001–02
* Runners-up: (19) 1934–35 1938–39 1939–40 1941–42 1942–43 1944–45 1949–50 1959–60 1960–61 1967–68 1968–69 1970–71 1976–77 1984–85 1994–95 1996–97 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08Cup of Portugal
*Winners: (19) 1922–23 1933–34 1935–36 1937–38 1940–41 1944–45 1945–46 1947–48 1953–54 1962–63 1970–71 1972–73 1973–74 1977–78 1981–82 1994–95 2001–02 2006–07 2007–08
*Runners-up: (16) 1922 1925 1928 1933 1935 1937 1952 1955 1960 1970 1972 1979 1987 1994 1996 2000Portuguese League Cup
*Runners-up: 2008SuperCup Cândido de Oliveira
*Winners: (7) 1982 1987 1995 2000 2002 2007 2008
*Runners-up: (1) 1980UEFA Cup Winners' Cup
*Winners: (1) 1964UEFA Cup
*Runners-up: (1) 2005

League and Cup History

Current squad

Out on loan

Football squad player|no=|nat=Portugal|name=André Martins|pos=GK(on loan to Torreense)Football squad player|no=|nat=Portugal|name=Rui Figueiredo|pos=DF(on loan to Esmoriz)Football squad player|no=18|nat=Portugal|name=João Gonçalves|pos=DF(on loan to Olhanense)Football squad player|no=4|nat=Portugal|name=Paulo Renato|pos=DF(on loan to Olhanense)Football squad player|no=|nat=Brazil|name=Vinicius Golas|pos=DF(on loan to Torreense)Football squad player|no=12|nat=Portugal|name=Tiago Pinto|pos=DF(on loan to Trofense)Football squad player|no=55|nat=Portugal|name=André Marques|pos=DF(on loan to Vitória de Setúbal)Football squad player|no=22|nat=Portugal|name=Zezinando|pos=MF(on loan to Real Massamá)Football squad player|no=20|nat=Portugal|name=Celestino|pos=MF(on loan to Estrela da Amadora)Football squad player|no=6|nat=Portugal|name=André Santos|pos=MF(on loan to Fátima)Football squad player|no=|nat=Portugal|name=João Martins|pos=MF(on loan to Atlético)Football squad player|no=11|nat=Brazil|name=Celsinho|pos=MF(on loan to Estrela da Amadora)Football squad player|no=|nat=Portugal|name=Bruno Matias|pos=FW(on loan to Fátima)Football squad player|no=11|nat=Portugal|name=Marco Matias|pos=FW(on loan to Varzim)Football squad player|no=47|nat=Portugal|name=Fábio Paím|pos=FW(on loan to Chelsea)Football squad player|no=99|nat=Portugal|name=Carlos Saleiro|pos=FW(on loan to Vitória de Setúbal)Football squad player|no=9|nat=Paraguay|name=Luis Paéz|pos=FW(on loan to Fátima)Football squad player|no=9|nat=Montenegro|name=Milan Purović|pos=FW(on loan to Kayserispor)Football squad player|no=|nat=Portugal|name=Rui Fonte|pos=FW(on loan to Arsenal)

Notable players

:"See cl|Sporting Clube de Portugal footballers."

Other sports

Like many Portuguese sports clubs, Sporting fields teams and supports athletes in many events other than football, among them athletics (members include world-class athlete Carlos Lopes, Olympic Marathon Gold Medal in Los Angeles 84, Rui Silva, Naide Gomes and Francis Obikwelu), swimming, handball, table tennis, beach soccer, and futsal. Sporting's athletics department and the futsal team are especially notable. Sporting's futsal has won the league for 7 times out of 16 FPF sponsored tournaments.

Sporting Clube de Portugal's active sports departments besides the football department include:

Archery

* Various types, adding up, amounts to more than 50 national titles and 2 European titles

Athletics

* There are various titles in this sport but in the major ones, Sporting has almost 300 national titles and more than 30 European titles (1 time European champion)

Billiards

* 36 individual national titles
* 15 doubles national titles
* 2 individual Cups of Portugal
* 4 doubles Cups of Portugal+ 100 titles in various types of billiards (Feminine, etc.)

Boxing

* There are various types because of the age and weight but adding up the major titles, Sporting has more than 100 national titles.

Chess

* 14 national titles and more than 20 in other variances of chess.

Full contact karate

* 14 national titles
* 1 Intercontinenatal Championship
* 3 European Champion
* 1 World Champion

Futsal

* 7 League titles
* 2 Cups of Portugal
* 1 National Cup (extinct)
* 3 Portuguese Super Cups

Gymnastics

* Sporting has more than 150 national titles, in the various types of gymnastics and 11 European titles.

Handball

* 19 times National Champions: 2 Elite Division titles and 17 League titles
* 12 Cups of Portugal
* 2 Portuguese Super Cups

Shooting

* 18 individual titles
* 12 team titles+ 50 other variances titles

Swimming

* There are various competitions, in general Sporting has more than 150 national titles and 3 European titles

Table tennis

* + 50 League titles (11 in a row record)
* 3 Portuguese/Spanish vs American Competition
* 3 times Bronze Medal in European Championships

Taekwondo

* In taekwondo, Sporting has performed almost like Boxing but adding up, Sporting has more than 50 national titles.

Weight-lifting

* 16 national titles

Chairmen

*Alfredo Augusto das Neves Holtreman
*João Rocha
*Sousa Cintra
*José Roquette
*Pedro Santana Lopes
*António Dias da Cunha
*Filipe Soares Franco (current chairman)

Supporters

Being one of the most popular teams in Portugal, Sporting Clube de Portugal is among the Portuguese clubs with more house clubs (houses that represent the club in a particular region in Portugal or outside the country), Sporting has more than 200 official houses and more than 90,000 club members.

Organised fan groups:
* [http://www.juveleo76.com Juventude Leonina] - The biggest and oldest supporters group in Portugal founded by the sons of a former Sporting president in 1976, having more than 3,000 members.
* [http://www.duxxi.org Directivo Ultras XXI] - Formed by a former leader of Juve Leo regarding an internal problem that is now healed. One of the biggest supporters group in Portugal with almost 2,000 members.
* [http://www.torcidaverde.pt Torcida Verde] - Second oldest supporters group of Sporting, formed in 1984, Torcida Verde is very well known because of their demonstrations against alleged corruption in Portuguese football and by supporting the less visible sports of Sporting.

References

External links

*Official website:
** [http://www.sporting.pt Official site] pt icon
** [http://deltacat03.com.sapo.pt/marchadosporting.html Official Himn] pt icon

*Official supporters websites:
** [http://www.juveleo76.com/ Ultra Juve Leo Sporting Supporters]
** [http://www.duxxi.org/ Sporting Supporters - Directivo Ultras XXI]
** [http://www.torcidaverde.pt/ Torcida Verde Supporters]

*Other unofficial websites:
** [http://www.forumscp.com/ Fórum SCP] Portal 10-A - Forum nao oficial do Sporting Clube de Portugal pt icon
** [http://www.pfutebol.com Portuguesefutebol.com] Portuguese football in English
** [http://www.sportingcp.home.sapo.pt Tudo sobre Sporting] pt icon
** [http://www.sporting100.com/ Fan site] pt icon
** [http://www.sportingdb.com/ Sporting Clube de Portugal Database]
** [http://www.SportingPoland.com Polish page fans Sporting Clube de Portugal]