Portuguese Football - An Introduction

The names Luis Figo, Rui Costa, Nuno Gomes et al bring to mind a stylish, free-flowing style of football that may at times remind one of a former Portuguese colony in South America. The national team has in recent years returned to the preeminence enjoyed by sides in the 1960s. However, closer to home, the domestic league is in a sad state.

In a nation with a population of 10 million people or roughly that of metropolitan London most First Division sides are cash-starved and forced to sell off talent to more financially-endowed teams in Italy, Spain, and England. With the prominent exceptions of Sporting Lisbon and Porto, domestic teams have in recent years fared badly.

The Portuguese top flight I Divisão has been dominated since its inception in 1935 by the 'Big Three' of Benfica, Sporting and Porto, with Belenenses by a single point in 1946 and Boavista in 2001 being the only other teams to lift the championship.

If Benfica reigned supreme in the 60s, lifting the European Cup in 1961 and 1962, Porto were the team of the late 80s and 90s with Rabah Madjer and Paolo Futre inspiring 'The Dragons' to a famous 1987 European Cup win over Bayern.

Sporting had something of a renaissance when Peter Schmeichel joined from Manchester United and lead them to consecutive league titles in 1999-2000. This year's UEFA Cup saw Porto and Boavista both through to the semi-finals with Porto reaching the final in Seville against Glasgow Celtic.

Besides domestic talent the Portuguese league is home to a growing number of African, Brazilian and Eastern European players. Foreign coaches have also enjoyed considerable success including Malcolm Allison at Sporting, Sven Goran Erikkson at Benfica and Bobby Robson briefly with Sporting before being sacked and moving north to Porto.

Graeme Souness' tenure at Benfica in the late 90s is less fondly remembered. Now Brazil's World Cup winning coach Luiz Felipe Scolari is the man charged with lifting the hosts to victory at Euro 2004 and he has already shown that he will stand up to the national team's big name players such as Figo and Rui Costa.

A closer look, though, at the history of Portuguese football reveals that much of it was built on the talent of players mined from the former colonies, particularly Africa. Eusebio, the enormous talent born in Mozambique who led all scorers in the 1966 World Cup, is the most prominent example. In addition to his exploits at the England World Cup, he led Benfica to European Cup victories over Barcelona and Real Madrid.

The reign of Eusebio and other African stars who played for Portugal - fellow Mozambiquan Mario Coluna, Angolan Jose Augusto, and others - ended with the revolution in 1975, which put an end to immigration from former colonies.

In the 1980s, however, homegrown players proved they could compete at the international level, making it to the quarterfinals of the European Cup only to lose to eventual winner France, which was led by the great Michel Platini. At this point, there was ample reason to hope for a return to the status Portugal had attained with earlier squads. It was not to be.

At the 1986 Mexico World Cup, the Portugal team self-imploded in an event later dubbed the "Saltillo Affair". In a prelude to the problems that have beset various African teams in recent years, the Portuguese team met in a mountain retreat in the middle of the World Cup and demanded more appearance money.

According to sources, some of these demands were met; however, the team went on to lose to Morocco 3-1 and bowed out of the Cup early. As a result, eleven members of the team were suspended by the country's federation president. In protest, the remaining team members withdrew from the team and Portugal was unable to qualify for the 1988 Euro Finals.

The Golden Generation of Portuguese Football won two world youth cups at the beginning of the 1990s but has never reached its full potential at the senior level. In typical form, the national squad arrived in Korea for the 2002 World Cup highly ranked, only to leave in disrepute.

An ugly incident at the end of the team's brief stay in Asia brought back memories of the 2000 European Championship, in which a referee was pushed and spat upon. Grouped with Poland, the United States, and co-host South Korea, great things were expected of Figo, Costa, and Nunes. Eusebio, who now works for SL Benfica as a coach, declared prior to the World Cup, 'I am convinced that now, in this group, we can pass the first group and if we can do this, I believe we can go very far. The team will have its best ever classification in the history of its football, and can surpass Portugal 1966, when we came third.' Things did not quite work out, and one can only hope for better in Euro 2004.

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