Portuguese Liga

Infobox football league

pixels = 172
country = Portugal
confed = UEFA
founded = 1934
teams = 16
relegation = Liga de Honra
levels = 1
domest_cup = Cup of Portugal
Portuguese League Cup Portuguese SuperCup
confed_cup = Champions League
UEFA Cup
Intertoto Cup
champions = F.C. Porto
tv = SportTV and RTP
season = 2007–08
website = http://www.lpfp.pt
current = Portuguese Liga 2008-09

The Portuguese Liga (pron. IPA2|'liɣɐ), currently named Liga Sagres after its main sponsor, is the league competition for Portuguese professional football clubs located at the top of the Portuguese football league system (above the "Liga de Honra"), making it Portugal's primary football competition.

The "Liga" is presently contested by sixteen clubs each season, but only five of them have won the title. Currently in its 73rd edition (counting four provisional championships in the 30's) the competition is dominated by the so called "big three"; (Benfica, FC Porto and Sporting Portugal), who have a total of 71 titles, with Belenenses and Boavista winning the other two.

History

Before the Portuguese football reform of 1938, an experimental 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 Portuguese Championship in a knock-out cup format was the most popular and defined the "Portuguese champion".

Then, with the reform, a round-basis competition was implemented as the most important of the calendar and began defining the Portuguese champion. From 1938 to 2000 the name "Campeonato Nacional da Primeira Divisão" (National Championship of the First Division), or just "Primeira Divisão" (First Division) was used. When the Portuguese League for Professional Football took control of the two nationwide leagues in 1999 it was renamed "Campeonato Nacional da Primeira Liga" (Premier League National Championship), or simply "Primeira Liga" (Premier League).

ponsored names

Galp acquired the naming rights to the league in 2002, titling the division SuperLiga Galp Energia. A four year deal with the Austrian sports betting web portal 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 2005-2006 season [http://www.lpfp.pt/default.aspx?SqlPage=content_noticias&CpContentId=286631] the name was changed to BWINLIGA in July 2006. [http://www.lpfp.pt/default.aspx?SqlPage=content_noticias&CpContentId=286890] . From the 2008-2009 season the league has been be named Liga Sagres, due to sponsorship from Sagres beer.

Competition

From the 2006-07 season on there are 16 clubs in the Portuguese Liga, down from 18 in the previous seasons. During the course of a season each club plays the others twice, once at their home stadium and once at their opponent's, for a total of 30 games. At the end of each season, the two lowest placed teams are relegated to the "Liga de Honra", and the top two teams from "Liga de Honra" are promoted to the Portuguese Liga.

Currently, for the 2008-09 season, the top two teams in the Liga qualify for the UEFA Champions League. The Champion (first place finish) goes directly into the group phase of the competion, with the runner-up (second place finish) entering the competition at the third qualifying round, and must survive a two-legged knockout tie in order to enter the group phase. The teams classified in third, fourth and fifth enter the UEFA Cup together with the winner of the Cup of Portugal. If the winner of the Cup of Portugal is already qualified for the Champions League, or would be qualified for the UEFA Cup by its league position, the runner-up will occupy the spot in the UEFA Cup. If the runner-up is also qualified for European competition through its league position, the spot is given to the 6th-placed team in the Liga. The 6th-placed team is allowed to play in the UEFA Intertoto Cup, but when it plays in the UEFA Cup because of the situation above, then, the spot is taken by the 7th-placed team.

Current clubs in Portuguese Liga Sagres

Names in bold are the colloquial names of the clubs.
*Associação Académica de Coimbra – Organismo Autónomo de Futebol
*Clube de Futebol «Os Belenenses»
*Sport Lisboa e Benfica
*Sporting Clube de Braga
*Clube de Futebol Estrela da Amadora
*Leixões Sport Club
*Clube Desportivo Nacional "da Madeira"
*Club Sport Marítimo
*Associação Naval 1º de Maio
*Futebol Clube Paços de Ferreira
*Futebol Clube do Porto
*Rio Ave Futebol Clube
*Sporting Clube de Portugal
*Clube Desportivo Trofense
*Vitória Sport Clube "de Guimarães"
*Vitória Futebol Clube "de Setúbal"

Television

Within Portugal, Sport TV holds rights to broadcast both first and second division matches, thtough their Premium Channels, SportTV 1 and SportTV 2. All clubs negotiate individually with the channel. One game a week is broadcast on free television, in a contract deal between SportTV and (from 2008-2009) RTP. The IPTV service, Meo, shows some games through a pay-per-view system.

Internationally, Gol TV shows games throughout Latin America, Setanta Sports shows games in the UK, Ireland and Australia, Sportitalia shows one game a week in Italy, and in Brazil games are broadcast by Band Sports.

UEFA Ranking

Current National League Ranking

#flagicon|ENG F.A. Premiership
#flagicon|Spain La Liga
#flagicon|ITA Serie A
#flagicon|FRA Ligue 1
#flagicon|GER Bundesliga
#flagicon|RUS Russian Premier League
#flagicon|ROM Liga I
#flagicon|POR Liga Sagres
#flagicon|NED Eredivisie

Continental honours by Liga players

*1965 European Footballer of the Year flagicon|Portugal Eusébio

*1966 FIFA World Cup Golden Shoe"' flagicon|Portugal Eusébio

*1968 European Golden Boot flagicon|Portugal Eusébio

*1973 European Golden Boot flagicon|Portugal Eusébio

*1974 European Golden Boot flagicon|Argentina Héctor Yazalde

*1983 European Golden Boot flagicon|Portugal Fernando Gomes

*1985 European Golden Boot flagicon|Portugal Fernando Gomes

*1987 African Footballer of the Year flagicon|Algeria Rabah Madjer

*1992 1992 Summer Olympics Silver Medal flagicon|Poland Andrzej Juskowiak

*1993 African Footballer of the Year flagicon|Nigeria Rashidi Yekini

*1994 Best European Goalkeeper flagicon|Belgium Michel Preud'homme

*1998 European Golden Boot flagicon|Brazil Mário Jardel

*2000 2000 Summer Olympics Gold Medal flagicon|Cameroon Albert Meyong

*2000 European Footballer of the Year flagicon|Portugal Luís Figo

*2001 FIFA World Player of the Year flagicon|Portugal Luís Figo

*2001 European Golden Boot flagicon|Brazil Mário Jardel

*2002 FIFA World Cup Champion flagicon|Brazil Anderson Polga

*2004 Best European Goalkeeper flagicon|Portugal Vítor Baía

*2006 FIFA World Cup All-Star Team flagicon|Portugal Ricardo

*2008 Summer Olympics Gold Medal flagicon|Argentina Angel Di Maria

FIFA World Cup All-Star Team flagicon|Portugal Ricardo

*Most caps for flagicon|POR Portugal: Luís Figo, played with Sporting CP, 129 caps

Attendance

Since the beginning of the league, there are three clubs with an attendance much higher than the others: S.L. Benfica, F.C. Porto and Sporting Clube de Portugal. In the 2007-08 season the average attendance in the Portuguese league was 11,216.

The 2007-08 season saw an average attendance by club: [http://www.european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn/current/avepor.htm]

Records

Other records

* In 1972/73, Benfica won the Portuguese Liga without any defeat (28 wins and 2 ties).

Participating Clubs

Includes "Campeonato da Liga". Years below refer to the season that ended that year.

ee also

*Sports league attendances

References

External links

* [http://pfutebol.com/ Portuguese Futebol.com » Your Source for Portuguese Soccer]
* [http://www.lpfp.pt Official site]
* [http://www.portuguesesoccernewslinks.com Portuguese soccer news]