Taça de Portugal

Taça de Portugal

Founded	1922 (as Campeonato de Portugal) 1938 (as Taça de Portugal)
Region	Portugal
Number of teams	156
Current champions	Benfica (25th title)
Most successful club(s)	Benfica (25 titles)
Television broadcasters	SportTV RTP (Final)
Website	http://www.fpf.pt
2014–15 Taça de Portugal

The Taça de Portugal (English: Portuguese Cup) (pronounced: [ˈtasɐ dɨ puɾtuˈɡaɫ]) is the main Portuguese national football knockout competition. First held in the 1938–39 season, the competition is organized by the Portuguese Football Federation. Before 1938, a similar but distinct competition was held under the name Campeonato de Portugal (Championship of Portugal), which effectively determined the Portuguese national champion and awarded the winning team with the same trophy that is currently awarded to the Portuguese Cup winners (although the Championship of Portugal titles don't count as Portuguese Cup titles and the winners of the Championship of Portugal no longer count as Portuguese football champions).

History

The first incarnation of the Portuguese Cup was in 1912, but very few clubs could participate and thus it was not a regular competition, the fact which ended it in 1918, the Portuguese Federation doesn't take in account its existence. It was named Taça do Império since S.C. Império organized it (do not confuse with Taça Império, which was the trophy of the inaugural game at the National Stadium where the Champion and the Cup winner played against each other). In 1922 the Championship of Portugal (Campeonato de Portugal) was created and was played every season with all the clubs participating in elimination rounds, the winners were named Champions of Portugal (although the winners of the Championship of Portugal no longer count as Portuguese football champions) and it was the primary tournament in Portugal, until the creation of the round-robin competition in the middle 1930s. With the success of this competition and the beginning of the recently created and official Portuguese Championship, in the 1938–39 season the Taça de Portugal (Portuguese Cup) was created and the tournament quickly became the second-most important in Portugal. It is organized by the Portuguese Football Federation (Federação Portuguesa de Futebol) and is played by all the teams in the Primeira Liga, Segunda Liga (excluding the B teams), Campeonato Nacional de Seniores (excluding Marítimo C) and by 20 District Cups winners.

As of the 2008–09 season, the cup is composed of 8 rounds (final included), with 1st level clubs joining at the 3rd round, the 2nd level clubs joining at the 2nd round and the 3rd and lower level clubs competing from the beginning. All rounds are played in a single game, except for the semifinals.

Currently, S.L. Benfica holds the record of 25 trophies on this competition.

The finals venue

Since 1946 the final game has been played at the Estádio Nacional near Lisbon in Jamor, except in 1961 (albeit Estádio das Antas being the home of FC Porto, an agreement was made between the two sides, since it was also quite nearer for Leixões to play), in the three years following the Carnation Revolution and in the season 1982/83, due to FC Porto pressure. In the years after the Carnation Revolution, the venue of the final game would be played at the home ground of the team that won the Portuguese Cup the previous year (note that when Boavista won the Cup two times in a row, the final of the next years were in Estádio das Antas (FC Porto's home ground at the time), since the Estádio do Bessa (Boavista's home ground) was too small to host the final.

List of winners

Campeonato de Portugal (1922–1938)

	Season	Winners	Score	Runners-up	Date	Venue
	1922	Porto	2–1	Sporting CP	4 June 1922	Campo da Constituição, Porto
			0–2		11 June 1922	Campo Grande, Lisbon
			3–1 aet		18 June 1922	Campo do Bessa, Porto
	1922–23	Sporting CP	3–0	Académica de Coimbra	24 June 1923	Santo Estádio, Faro
	1923–24	Olhanense	4–2	Porto	8 June 1924	Campo Grande, Lisbon
	1924–25	Porto (2)	2–1	Sporting CP	28 June 1925	Campo de Monserrate, Viana do Castelo
	1925–26	Marítimo	2–0^[1]	Belenenses	6 June 1926	Campo do Ameal, Porto
	1926–27	Belenenses	3–0	Vitória de Setúbal	12 June 1927	Estádio do Lumiar, Lisbon
	1927–28	Carcavelinhos	3–1	Sporting CP	30 June 1928	Campo de Palhavã, Lisbon
	1928–29	Belenenses (2)	3–1	União de Lisboa	16 June 1929	Campo de Palhavã, Lisbon
Two-legged matches from round of 16 to semi-finals
	1929–30	Benfica	3–1 aet	Barreirense	1 June 1930	Campo Grande, Lisbon
	1930–31	Benfica (2)	3–0	Porto	28 June 1931	Campo do Arnado, Coimbra
	1931–32	Porto (3)	4–4 aet	Belenenses	30 June 1932	Campo do Arnado, Coimbra
	1931–32	Porto (3)	2–1	Belenenses	17 July 1932	Campo do Arnado, Coimbra
	1932–33	Belenenses (3)	3–1	Sporting CP	2 July 1933	Estádio do Lumiar, Lisbon
	1933–34	Sporting CP (2)	4–3 aet	Barreirense	8 July 1934	Estádio do Lumiar, Lisbon
	1934–35	Benfica (3)	2–1	Sporting CP	30 June 1935	Estádio do Lumiar, Lisbon
	1935–36	Sporting CP (3)	3–1	Belenenses	7 July 1936	Estádio do Lumiar, Lisbon
	1936–37	Porto (4)	3–2	Sporting CP	4 July 1937	Campo do Arnado, Coimbra
	1937–38	Sporting CP (4)	3–1	Benfica	26 June 1938	Estádio do Lumiar, Lisbon

Performance by club

Club	Winners	Runners-up	Winning years and runners-up years
Sporting CP	4	6	1922, 1923, 1925, 1928, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938
Porto	4	2	1922, 1924, 1925, 1931, 1932, 1937
Belenenses	3	3	1926, 1927, 1929, 1932, 1933, 1936
Benfica	3	1	1930, 1931, 1935, 1938
Olhanense	1	–	1924
Marítimo	1	–	1926
Carcavelinhos	1	–	1928
Barreirense	–	2	1930, 1934
Académica de Coimbra	–	1	1923
Vitória de Setúbal	–	1	1927
União de Lisboa	–	1	1929

Total titles won by city

7 clubs have won the Campeonato de Portugal, from a total of 4 cities.

City	Number of titles	Clubs
Lisbon	11	Sporting CP (4), Belenenses (3), Benfica (3), Carcavelinhos (1)
Porto	04	FC Porto (4)
Olhão	01	Olhanense (1)
Funchal	01	Marítimo (1)