List of Portuguese football champions
| Primeira Liga Experimental (1934–1938) Primeira Divisão (1938–1999) Primeira Liga (1999–present) |
|---|
| Founded |
| 1934 |
| Number of Teams |
| 18 |
| Current Champions |
| Benfica |
| Country |
Portugal
|
| Most successful club |
|
Benfica (35 times champions) |
The Portuguese football champions are the winners of the highest competition in Portuguese football, which is the Primeira Liga.
The first competition that defined the Portuguese football champion was called Championship of Portugal (Campeonato de Portugal). It corresponds to today's Portuguese Cup (Taça de Portugal) and was held in a knock-out basis, although the Championship of Portugal titles don't count as Taça de Portugal titles and the winners of the Championship of Portugal no longer count as Portuguese football champions.
In 1934 an experimental league (Primeira Liga Experimental) was formed. It would be well-succeeded, and from the 1938–39 season it would start defining the champions. Until then the winner were only "league champions". The former Championship of Portugal became the Taça de Portugal, and the experimental league became the National Championship of the First Division, usually called First Division (Primeira Divisão). Since 1999, the First Division is called Premier League (Primeira Liga).
FC Porto were the first club to be crowned League champions, on the 1934–35 season. They had also won the first Championship of Portugal, on the 1921–22 season.
S.L. Benfica, with 35 titles, have been crowned champions more times than any other club having dominated during the 1960s and 1970s. Benfica are followed by Porto with 27 titles, who dominated in the 1990s and 2000s, who in turn are followed by Sporting Clube de Portugal with 18 titles and dominating national competitions in the 1940s and 1950s. C.F. Os Belenenses and Boavista F.C. have been the only other clubs which managed to win the league, each winning it once. All five clubs are from the two largest cities, of Lisbon and Porto respectively.
All Primeira Liga champions have come from either Lisbon or Porto.
Five clubs have been champions, from a total of 2 cities.
The Double, called Dobradinha in Portuguese, means winning the Primeira Liga and the Taça de Portugal in the same season. The first double was achieved by Sporting CP in 1941 and the most recent by Benfica in 2014.
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