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.
History
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.
List of champions and top scorers
- (1) Porto saw six points subtracted in the Apito Dourado bribery allegations, reducing their 20-point lead (total 75 points) to 14. But in May 2011, the Central Administrative Court of the South of Portugal ruled that decision, taken in 2008 on a controversial meeting made by the Justice Council of the Portuguese Football Federation, as being "inexistent". The Portuguese Football Federation has announced it would appeal from this decision the Administrative Supreme Court.
Performance by club
All Primeira Liga champions have come from either Lisbon or Porto.
| Club | Winners | Second place | Winning years and Second place years |
| Benfica | 35 | 27 | 1936, 1937, 1938, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 |
| Porto | 27 | 25 | 1935, 1936, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1951, 1954, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1969, 1975, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015 |
| Sporting CP | 18 | 21 | 1935, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1966, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1982, 1985, 1995, 1997, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2014, 2016 |
| Belenenses | |
|
1937, 1946, 1955, 1973 |
| Boavista | |
|
1976, 1999, 2001, 2002 |
| Académica de Coimbra | – | |
1967 |
| Vitória de Setúbal | – | |
1972 |
| Braga | – | |
2010 |
Performance by city
Five clubs have been champions, from a total of 2 cities.
| City | Number of Titles | Clubs |
|---|---|---|
 Lisbon |
|
Benfica (35), Sporting (18), Belenenses (1) |
 Porto |
|
Porto (27), Boavista (1) |
Doubles, Trebles and Quadruples
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.
The Treble, called Triplete in Portuguese, usually refers either winning the domestic treble of Primeira Liga, Taça de Portugal and Taça da Liga (domestic treble) or winning a UEFA competition, the Primeira Liga and Taça de Portugal (continental treble) in the same season. The Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira does not count. Benfica is the only Portuguese club to have achieved a domestic treble by winning the Primeira Liga, Taça de Portugal and Taça da Liga in 2014, and Porto is the only Portuguese club to have achieved a continental treble by winning the Primeira Liga, Taça de Portugal and UEFA Cup in 2003, and by winning the Primeira Liga, Taça de Portugal and UEFA Europa League in 2011.
The Quadruple, called Quadriplete in Portuguese, refers to winning 4 titles in the same season. This feat has only been achieved by Porto (furthermore twice) in the 1987–88 season, when it won the European Super Cup, Intercontinental Cup, Primeira Liga and Taça de Portugal, and in the 2010–11 season when it won the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira, Primeira Liga, UEFA Europa League and Taça de Portugal.
Teams below have made the Double:
Teams below have made the Treble:
| Year | Winner | Trophies |
|---|---|---|
| 2002–03 | Porto | Primeira Liga, Taça de Portugal, UEFA Cup |
| 2010–11 | Porto (2) | Primeira Liga, Taça de Portugal, UEFA Europa League |
| 2013–14 | Benfica | Primeira Liga, Taça de Portugal, Taça da Liga |
The below teams have made the Quadruple:
| Year | Winner | Trophies |
|---|---|---|
| 1987–88 | Porto | Intercontinental Cup, European Super Cup, Primeira Liga, Taça de Portugal |
| 2010–11 | Porto (2) | Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira, Primeira Liga, Taça de Portugal, UEFA Europa League |