Football has had a break, but is back with a vengeance across the world. Over the lockdown (1, 2 & 3 – thanks Boris), I longed for football with crowds, and travelling. I love watching football, and I love exploring new places and taking in what they have to offer.

Because of this, I decided to start a series in which I look at some lesser discussed football leagues here in the UK and analyse what they have to offer and potentially open my mind up to new football possibilities. Now, I’m not going to just give up watching the Premier League, however I have a big interest in developing my football knowledge, whilst also enjoying watching as much of the game as possible.

This time, we are going to be discussing the Portuguese top-flight, the Primeira Liga. Also referred to as Liga NOS, the league has been the starting point for some of the World’s greats, and has had been a magnificent proving ground on many occasions. The league itself is certainly not listed as ‘obscure’, however I think it is an often understated and underappreciated European league, particularly from football fans in the UK, where apart from occasional Champions League and Europa League ties with Primeira Liga sides will rarely tune into Portuguese football. I must admit myself, that apart from the odd few Sunday evening games, I have also overlooked the great football on offer, and so I wanted to add them as the second Travel Man entry to both peak my own, and possibly any readers’ interest in the league. To do this, I will go through a brief history of the league, cover some key stats and facts and then discuss the current state of affairs in the division.

If you do have experience of watching the Primeira Liga, drop us a tweet @NextGoalWinBlog, I’d love to find out more about it.

Enjoy.

History

The Primeira Liga dates back nearly 90 years, as back in 1934 the Campeonato da Liga da Primeira Divisão was formed and became listed as an official competition just 4 years later in 1938. 60 years after this, in 1999, the league was renamed to the Primeira Liga, which it has been commonly known as since, despite several sponsorship naming’s of the league, including the most recent Liga NOS sponsorship.

In it’s history, only 5 teams have been crowned champions, the “Big 3” of Benfica, Porto and Sporting CP have been most dominant with 37, 29 and 18 titles respectively. Meanwhile, in the 1945/46 season, Belenenses joined the exclusive club and in the 01/02 season Boavista became the 5th side to claim the trophy. This dominance has been a hindrance to Portuguese football in the most part, as local sides struggle to gain spectators who all prefer to flock to one of the big sides, resulting in a monopoly within Portuguese football. These 3 sides have been ever-present in the league’s history, which adds to their history of winning titles from then the league was made up of much fewer than the 18 sides entered today. Despite being established in the division for longer than any competitors, they have remained incredibly dominant over this time, with no major challenger to any of the 3 sides in the last 20 years, with 2 of the 3 sides being in the top 2 since the early 2000s when Boavista led a small and brief revolutionary change to the standings. These sides also massively outweigh their opposition in a financial and support backing, with their attendances beating the team in 4th by an average of near 20,000. This gulf in quality is reminiscent of many league across Europe in which money and history of certain clubs puts the league title out of reach from most, leaving those to battle for Europa League places and domestic trophies. On a European stage, although fairly quiet in recent years, these sides have had huge successes, with Benfica winning successive European Cups in the early 60s, Porto have 2 European Cups also along with 2 UEFA Cup titles, with their successes coming not too long ago under Mourinho and then their latest UEFA Cup win was within the last 10 years in the 2010/11 campaign. Finally, Sporting are the only team of the 3 to have no real European accolade, aside from a European Cup Winners’ Cup in the early 60s and were also runners up in a UEFA Cup final.

Some of the individual statistics follow the trend of the club dominance, as the league’s top-scorer Fernando Peyroteo spent his entire career at Sporting where he scored 332 goals in just 197 games in the period of 1937-1949. The all-time appearance maker in the league belongs to Manuel Fernandes, who played a total of 486 Primeira Liga matches between 1970-1988, playing the majority of matches at Sporting, but also playing pre and post for G.D. Fabril and Vitória F.C. respectively. Also in financial terms, the “Big 3” reign supreme, with the top 10 fees paid for players belonging to these sides, along with the top 5 fees received for players, with Portuguese sides having a growing reputation for selling their young talents for huge fees rather than holding onto them to build with. It must also be mentioned when talking about individuals, just some of the talent to have passed through the league over it’s history. In recent times, we have seen the arrival of a young Cristiano Ronaldo burst onto the scene, who played for Sporting CP just as Figo had done prior, and in the last year or so, Bruno Fernandes was leading the line for the side. Meanwhile, at Benfica, we’ve seen young Joao Felix leave recently, and it was the same side that Eusébio had been at now over 50 years ago. Some remarkable talent has passed through the league, and as a place to spot upcoming European talent is one of the main selling points for the league, as these big sides have superb development facilities, none more so than Sporting who have arguably one of the best development setups in the World.

The current format of the league involves 18 sides, with the 1st and 2nd placed sides making the Champions League group stage in the current allocation, while 3rd spot goes into the Champions League qualifying round. Meanwhile, 4th goes instantly into the Europa League group stage, and 5th and 6th will be left qualifying to the soon-to-be introduced Europa Conference League. At the bottom, the lowest 2 sides are instantly relegated to the Liga Portugal 2, while the side in 16th are placed into a relegation play-off. In the 2019/2020 UEFA league rankings, the Primeira Liga sat just outside the top-5 in 6th spot, although they in the past have been in Europe’s top-5 prior to being knocked back down by France’s Ligue 1.

The State Of Things

In the current campaign at time of writing (April 2021), it is the usual tale of the “Big 3” remaining dominant, however it is Sporting who currently lead things, with 66 points from their 26 games, and are unbeaten in the current season (winning 20 and drawing 6). Despite being unbeaten, they are only 6 points ahead of Porto in 2nd, who are on 60 points and a fairly close goal difference. This could set up the league for a tasty final few games if Sporting drop any points in the final 8 games of the season. Meanwhile, in 3rd, Benfica are sitting on 57 points, which puts them probably out of the title race, however they are probably needing to look over their shoulder rather than upwards, as Braga are breathing down their necks with 54 points, which could mean a battle for the Champions League qualifying round spot, with the team in 4th entering the Europa League.

From this point, the teams drop quite sharply from 4th to 5th, and from 9th spot down to the bottom at 18th, all these sides could be dragged into, or are already in a relegation scrap. The 5th and 6th spot sides will be entered into the soon-to-be introduced Europa Conference League (which I have no information on quite frankly), which will possibly add a little excitement or battle into mid-table. With the bottom half, we have currently 10 sides that I think are within contention of facing the drop, which will surely create an exciting dynamic for the final run-in, as 5 points separate 9th placed Portimonense to 16th Marítimo. It’s former champions Boavista who seem quite likely to be dropping into the bottom 3, as they have struggled all season and sit just 1 point above the relegation play-off place, and given how they have the longest winless run of any side this season, they will be fearful for their status in the league.

With some individual battles, the top-scorer award is currently tied on 16 goals between Pedro Gonçalves of Sporting, and Haris Seferović of Benfica. The young former Wolves man Gonçalves looks like a real talent coming through, and is making a real impact in his first full season at Sporting, while is also climbing through the national sides to challenge for a first team place in this summers Euros. The top-assist award is currently being led by another youngster in Darwin Núñez of Benfica who has 7 assists thus far. Defensively, the clean sheet award unsurprisingly goes to Sporting’s keeper Antonio Adán who has settled in nicely in his first season in Portugal. Some of these youngsters are well worth keeping an eye on, as they may just crop up this summer in the Euro’s, or could possibly end up playing closer to home, as we know that Premier League sides and other European giants are familiar with scouting in Portugal (looking at you Wolves),

Why Bother?

If you’ve got to this point in the post, I’d be assuming you have some interest in the league by now, however if you need a quick summary of why to bother tuning in to the final 8 gameweek’s, then firstly we could be about to see a title race run-in should Sporting drop points, or they may continue their unbeaten season to have an invincible season, either way it will bring out the best in Sporting and also in Porto. Further down the table, the relegation battle could become a real scrap as over half of the clubs in the league could be dragged into the drop zone. Either way, it’s gonna create some real drama in the final few weeks.

Additionally, I think it’s worth trying the Primeira Liga, as we have seen some of the greatest footballers of all time hone their craft on Portuguese soil, meaning you could tune in and witness the next Ronaldo, Figo or Fernandes. It may be that you’re watching a player that could become your clubs’ star-player in the coming seasons, and will let you be able to brag that “you saw him first” to your mates.

Ultimately, I think the Primeira Liga should be given a go from everyone, as although they have 3 dominant sides, there is still a battle between them and there’s no single club dominance that we often see in France or even England, and that keeps things interesting. Also, although they haven’t had the best success in Europe in recent years, let’s not forget the work of Mourinho in the early 00s, showing that with the right man in charge, these sides may just launch an attack on European soil in the near future. Even this year we are seeing Porto do some real business in the Champions League, knocking out Ronaldo’s Juve side in the last round.

Overall, although football is seemingly never-ending at the moment, why not give the Portuguese Primeira Liga a go, you might just enjoy it.

Obrigado!