Founded in 1934 asCampeonato da Liga da Primeira Divisão, it was namedCampeonato Nacional da Primeira Divisão from 1938 until 1999, when it was changed to its current naming. Over 70 teams have competed in the Primeira Liga, but only five have been crowned champions. Among them, the "Big Three" teams –Benfica (38 wins),Porto (30) andSporting CP (21) – have won all but two Primeira Liga titles; the other winners areBelenenses (1945–46) andBoavista (2000–01).[2]
The Primeira Liga reached a world ranking of fourth according toIFFHS's 2011 ranking.[3]
Before the Portuguese football reform of 1938, a competition on a round-basis was already being held – thePrimeira Liga (Premier League) and the winners of that competition were named "League champions". Despite that, aChampionship of Portugal in a knock-out cup format was the most popular and defined thePortuguese champion, although the winners of this competition no longer count as Portuguese football champions.[citation needed]
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 nameCampeonato Nacional da Primeira Divisão (National Championship of the First Division) or justPrimeira Divisão (First Division), was used.[4]
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 toPorto 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 fromSetúbal 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.[5]
In the 1941–42 season, it was decided to expand the championship from eight to ten teams to admitBraga FA andAlgarve FA champions (until this season only the top teams from Porto, Coimbra, Lisboa and Setúbal were admitted).[6] Porto finished the regional championship in third place again, which did not grant entry into the Primeira Liga.[7] However, a second expand (from 10 to 12) in the same season was decided, which allowed the club to participate.[8]
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 andTerceira Divisão no longer had to play theirdistrict championships on the same season as they had been doing since the first seasons of the Liga.[6] Below is a complete record of how many teams played in each season throughout the league's history;
"The Big Three" (Portuguese:Os Três Grandes) is a nickname for the three most powerfulsports clubs in Portugal. With the exception ofBelenenses in 1945–46 andBoavista in 2000–01, only three clubs have won the Primeira Liga title – Benfica (38 times), Porto (30) and Sporting CP (21). These three clubs generally end up sharing the top three positions (thus, appearing more frequently inUEFA 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.[9]
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 theLatin 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.[10][11]
Galp Energia acquired the naming rights to the league in 2002, titling the divisionSuperLiga Galp Energia. A four-year deal with Austrian sports betting firmbwin was announced on 18 August 2005 amid questioning by the other gambling authorities in Portugal (theSanta 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 nameLiga betandwin.com for the2005–06 season, the name was changed tobwin LIGA in July 2006.[12][13]
From the2008–09 season to the2009–10 season the league was namedLiga Sagres due to sponsorship fromSagres beer. In 2010, they renewed the sponsorship from Sagres, but also got the sponsorship fromZON Multimédia. The league was namedLiga ZON Sagres until2013–14 after the sponsorship agreement between Sagres, ZON (nowNOS) and the league ended. In 2015, the league was namedLiga NOS until the2020–21 season.[14] From 2021 to 2023, it was knownLiga Portugal Bwin. Since 2023, it is called Liga PortugalBetclic.
Since the2014–15 season, there are 18 clubs in the Primeira Liga, up from 16 in the previous seasons. During the course of a season, each club plays all teams twice – once at their home stadium and once at their opponent's stadium – for a total of 34 games. At the end of each season, the two lowest placed teams are relegated to theSegunda Liga and the top two teams from Segunda Liga are promoted to the Primeira Liga.
The top teams in Primeira Liga qualify for theUEFA Champions League, with the winner entering the group stage directly. The second placed team enters the playoffs for the group stage of the UEFA Champions League; if they fail to qualify, they enter theUEFA Europa League, along with theTaça de Portugal cup winners. If the Taça de Portugal cup winners qualify for the UEFA Champions League through league placing, the berth is given to the third placed team, who otherwise enter theUEFA Europa League qualification. The number four enters the qualification stages of theUEFA Conference League.
Since the beginning of the league, there are three clubs with an attendance much higher than the others: Benfica, Porto and Sporting CP. They have also the biggest stadiums in Portugal, with more than 50,000 seats. Other clubs, such asVitória de Guimarães andBraga, also have good attendances.Académica de Coimbra,Vitória de Setúbal,Boavista,Belenenses, andMarítimo are historical clubs, with more than 40 top-flight seasons, from the biggest Portuguese cities, and have also many supporters. However, they do not have big attendances nowadays. Their stadiums have between 10,000 and 30,000 seats.
In the2023–24 season, Liga Portugal broke the record for stadium attendance in the last 12 years of Liga records, with an increase of more than10% compared to the previous season.[19] The total accumulated audience figures were3,707,290 and556,267 people, giving an average attendance of12,115 and1,818 spectators in the Primeira and Segunda Liga, respectively. It's also the highest in the last 34 years and the only one to pass the 12,000 barrier since the 1989–90 season.[20]
This is due to the League's joint initiative with Continente "É Para Cartão" to bring families back to the stadiums.[21] The slogan "Football is You" was a success, as this season many historic clubs in lower leagues managed to have much higher averages than several clubs in the Primeira Liga.[22]
In the following season,2024-25, the league once again set a new record for stadium attendance, with a1.5% increase on the previous season. The total accumulated audience totalled3,761,888 people, giving an average attendance of12,294 spectators. This is the highest this season and the second time since the 1989/90 season that the 12,000 barrier has been surpassed. This is mainly due to the rise in the averages of Benfica, Sporting, Porto, Vitória de Guimarães, Farense and Gil Vicente, who are the only clubs to have improved their averages, while the rest of the clubs have fallen considerably.
The record season of 2024–25 saw the following statistics per club:[23]
Before 1995–96, the points were awarded in a format of two points for a win. In that season, Primeira Liga switched to the now standard three points for a win system.
(1) Porto saw six points subtracted for corruption allegations in theApito Dourado,[24] but they recovered those points in July 2017.
The all-time Primeira Liga table is an overall record of all match results, points, and goals of every team that has played in Primeira Liga since its inception in 1934. The table is accurate as of the end of the2024–25 season.[citation needed] For comparison, older seasons have been calculated according to the three-points-per-win rule.
In1972–73,Benfica became the first team to win the Portuguese league without defeat, with 58 points in 30 games (28 wins and 2 draws), the best efficiency ever obtained (96.7%) where 2 points were awarded for a victory. In that season, Benfica set the Portuguese league and European leagues record for most consecutive victories (23) – 29 wins overall, between1971–72 and 1972–73. Benfica also set the league record for the greatest margin of victory in points over the second-placed team (18 points) in a 2 points per win championship.
In1977–78, Benfica completed the Portuguese league unbeaten for the second time (21 wins and 9 draws), despite not having won the league in this season.
In1990–91, Benfica achieved the highest number of wins in a single season – 32 (out of 38 matches).
In1998–99,Porto became the only team to win five consecutive titles.
In2010–11, Porto won the Portuguese league without defeat, with 84 points in 30 games (27 wins and 3 draws), the best efficiency ever obtained (93.3%) where 3 points were awarded for a victory. That season, Porto also set the league record for the greatest margin of victory in points over the second-placed team (21 points) in a 3 points per win championship.
In2012–13, Porto won the Portuguese league unbeaten for the second time (24 wins and 6 draws).
In2020–21,Sporting CP set the record for the longest unbeaten run in a single season with 32 matches (25 wins and 7 draws) out of 34.
From8 November 2020 to21 April 2022, Porto set the record for the longest unbeaten run in the league: 58 matches (47 wins and 11 draws).
In2021–22, Porto achieved a record 91 points in the Portuguese league (29 wins and 4 draws in 34 games).
^In the 2018–19 season, the three lowest placed teams were relegated to the LigaPro due to the integration ofGil Vicente in the Primeira Liga in the following season. ThePortuguese Football Federation appealed to proceed with this integration as soon as possible.[1]
^In the case of Farense, only the São Luís Stadium is considered.
^"Bola oficial da Liga Portugal" [Liga Portugal's official ball].Ligaportugal.pt (in Portuguese).Archived from the original on 6 February 2015. Retrieved3 January 2015.
^"Comunicado" [Announcement](PDF).CMVM (in Portuguese). S.L. Benfica. 10 June 2023.Archived(PDF) from the original on 14 May 2021. Retrieved21 February 2021.
^"Comunicado" [Announcement](PDF).CMVM (in Portuguese). S.L. Benfica. 4 September 2020.Archived(PDF) from the original on 14 May 2021. Retrieved21 February 2021.
^"Comunicado" [Announcement](PDF).CMVM (in Portuguese). S.L. Benfica. 14 August 2020.Archived(PDF) from the original on 14 May 2021. Retrieved21 February 2021.
^"Arthur Cabral reforça o Benfica!" [Arthur Cabral reinforces Benfica!].slbenfica.pt (in Portuguese). 10 August 2023.Archived from the original on 11 August 2023. Retrieved11 August 2023.
^"Comunicado à CMVM" [Announcement to CMVM].S.L. Benfica (in Portuguese). 3 July 2019.Archived from the original on 3 July 2019. Retrieved3 July 2019.
^"Enzo transferido" [Enzo transferred].S.L. Benfica (in Portuguese). 1 February 2023.Archived from the original on 1 February 2023. Retrieved1 February 2023.
^"Comunicado" [Announcement](PDF).CMVM (in Portuguese). S.L. Benfica. 27 September 2020. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 28 April 2021. Retrieved21 February 2021.