Taça de Portugal

Taça de Portugal
Founded	1938
Region	Portugal
Number of teams	162
Current champions	Académica de Coimbra; (2nd title)
Most successful club(s)	Benfica; (24 titles)
Television broadcasters	RTP; SportTV
Website	http://www.fpf.pt
	2012–13 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.

History [edit]

The first incarnation of the Taça 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 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, 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 four national divisions (Primeira Liga, Segunda Liga, Second Division and Third Division).

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 24 trophies on this competition.

The venue [edit]

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 and both teams were from the same city, Porto).

Campeonato de Portugal [edit]

1922 – 1938 [edit]

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

Performance By Club [edit]

Club	Winners	Runners-up	Winning Years and Runner-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 [edit]

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)