Sporting's Academy was also the first and only sports academy in Europe to receive the ISO9001:2008 – a quality certification awarded by EIC, a Portuguese anonymous society responsible for this type of reward, which is recognised both locally and internationally.[1][2]
Facilities
Budgeted around 2000$00 million (2 million contos), the construction of the academy commenced in August 1999 in the council of Alcochete, located on the outskirts of Lisbon on the southern bank of the river Tejo, and the inauguration was on June 21, 2002.[3] The main building of the academy has two different areas, the professional football area and the youth area. In both sides there is medical center equipped with treatment rooms, gym, Turkish bath, Jacuzzi and bedrooms. In the youth area, there are also several study rooms. The Academy is equipped with a main field, four grass pitches for training, a synthetic field and a grassed area for goalkeepers training.[4]
Sporting's youth academy was one of the training grounds for the Portugal national football team during Euro 2004. A number of European clubs choose the Sporting's Academia for training in the off-season.
