List of competing FAs in Portugal

As the history of Portuguese football itself remind us, the district football associations have contributed and continue to contribute a great deal to making Portugal a world football power.
 

Responsible for the district senior and youth competitions, it was in these associations that many of Portugal's biggest clubs and players began their journey to the top of world football.
 

There's no shortage of examples, and we don't need to go very far: just think of Jota Silva, a Vitória Sport Clube player who did his training at Sousense in the Porto Football Association district, and Arouca, a club that "hid" for many years in the Aveiro district competitions before meteorically rising to the Primeira Liga.
 

Portugal FA: A bit of history

Although the history books tell us that the first football match was probably played in Camacha, Madeira, the first FA to be founded in Portugal is the Lisbon FA, whose foundation date takes us back to the monarchical regime, more specifically to 23 September 1910.
 

The Lisbon FA was soon joined by the Porto FA and the Portalegre FA, which on 31 March 1914 formed the Portuguese Football Union, the first incarnation of what is now the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF).
 

Between its formation and 1948, the year in which the national competitive framework was reformulated, all clubs had to compete in their respective district championships, which at the time served as a way of qualifying for the I and II national divisions.
 

It should be emphasised that qualification for each of the divisions and the places allocated to each association depended on each club's position in the respective district championship and the size of the football association to which it belonged.
 

With the reformulation of the national football competitive framework in 1948, the III national division was created to facilitate the transition between the district and national championships. In addition, clubs that had played in the national divisions the previous year were no longer obliged to play in their respective district championships.
 

Clubs from the autonomous regions of the Azores and Madeira, which only reached the national divisions of Portuguese football in 1970, were excluded from this measure.
 

Portugal FA list

Although FAs in Portugal mostly follow the logic of district administrative organisation, there are two exceptions to this rule.
 

These exceptions come from the Azores, where, in addition to the Ponta Delgada FA, there are also the Horta (Horta FA) and Angra do Heroísmo (Angra do Heroísmo FA) football associations. This division is due to the fact that, before the autonomy brought about by the 25th of April, there were three districts in the Azores (Angra do Heroísmo, Horta and Ponta Delgada) which gave rise to three different football associations.
 

As the Carnation Revolution did not bring about a merger between these three associations, the Azores continued to have three associations.
 

Despite this, from the 2013/2014 season onwards, the Azorean FAs agreed to create an intermediate competitive level between the district competitions and the Portuguese Championship, which they called the Azores Championship, and which brings together the best teams in the archipelago.
 

So, in total, there are 22 Portuguese FAs, 18 on the mainland, 3 in the Azores and 1 in Madeira.
 

Here's the full list of Portuguese associations in alphabetical order:
 

- Algarve FA

- Angra Heroísmo FA

- Aveiro FA

- Beja FA

- Braga FA

- Bragança FA

- Castelo Branco FA

- Coimbra FA

- Évora FA

- Guarda FA

- Horta FA

- Leiria FA

- Lisbon FA

- Madeira FA

- Ponta Delgada FA

- Portalegre FA

- Porto FA

- Santarém FA

- Setúbal FA

- Viana do Castelo FA

- Vila Real FA

- Viseu FA
 

What is the biggest FA in Portugal?

Although Lisbon is the most populous district in Portugal, the largest football association in the country is the Porto FA.
 

In total, Porto FA (founded on 10 August 1912 by FC Porto and Leixões) is made up of around 450 clubs, more than 23,000 athletes, 850 referees and organises 25 ordinary competitions and 11 extraordinary competitions every year.
 

To give you an idea of the size of Porto FA’s competitive structure, the association currently has four divisions for senior men alone (Pro-National, Honour Division, 1st Division and 2nd Division), with a new division for access to the Portuguese Championship already planned for the 2024/2025 season, which will increase the number of divisions to five, a far cry from the three divisions of Braga FA and Lisboa FA.
 

Speaking of competitions...
 

What competitions does a football association organise in Portugal?

As we saw earlier, associations such as Porto FA have a competitive framework in which they organise senior men's championships, but these are not the only competitions organised by a district association in Portugal.
 

Depending on the number of federated clubs and athletes, the Portuguese FAs also organise senior women's competitions, cups, men's and women's district training championships at Veterans, Under-23, Under-19, Under-17, Under-15, Under-13, Under-11, Under-9 and Under-7 level.
 

In addition to football, Portugal FAs also organise championships, futsal cups and even beach football leagues at all levels and for both sexes.
 

We end with two more competitions, but this time between football associations: the Lopes da Silva Inter-Association Tournament and the Regions' Cup.
 

In practice, although both competitions bring together all the existing Portugal FAs, there are substantial differences between them.
 

While the Lopes da Silva Inter-Association Tournament, named in honour of a man who gave a lot to Portuguese and European football, has teams made up of U14 players and will largely contribute to the formation of the national U15 team the following year, on the other hand, the Regions' Cup has senior players from the district championships who, if their association wins, will go on to represent Portugal in the UEFA Regions' Cup.