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Developing football in Portugal

It has been a golden period for the Portuguese Football Federation, but the country has ambitious goals to ensure the legacy of recent success is built upon.

Overview

Before the pandemic, the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) was looking to increase the number of footballers across the nation to 300,000 by 2024 – almost double the 2012 figure.

However, the events of 2020/21 have caused this goal to be postponed. The federation's number one priority is to create the conditions to restore this objective as soon as possible – and it has produced ten action points to that end:

1. Ensure the sustainability of the FPF as a base for building Portuguese football;

2. Ensure the sustainability of FPF members, who are responsible for the normal functioning of Portuguese professional and district football;

3. Safeguard football, futsal and beach soccer teams, at all levels;

4. Maintain the FPF's close connection with international football bodies, namely UEFA and FIFA, where structural decisions will be taken in the coming years that will greatly influence European and world football;

5. Design financially sustainable support programmes for the clubs participating in FPF competitions;

6. Restructure competitive frameworks and adapt the club certification model accordingly;

7. Elevate skills through the Portugal football school;

8. Adjust registration fees, transfers and fines in the most affected competitions;

9. Create a programme to encourage best practice training;

10. Make Channel 11 the flagship instrument to achieve participation.

"The FPF's work does not stop with football on the pitch. We also seek to promote a more just and inclusive society."

Fernando Gomes, Portuguese Football Federation president

UEFA support

UEFA's HatTrick programme, which channels EURO funds into football development across Europe, has helped the FPF create and develop Channel 11, Europe's first TV channel from a football association, focusing on youth football and women's competitions.

The channel promotes Portuguese football through more than 600 live match broadcasts, with exclusive content and interviews with world-famous Portuguese players such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Bernardo Silva, João Felix and many others. In addition, the output has a strong social responsibility element and promotes inclusion, diversity and accessibility.

The emphasis is to "promote, protect and develop football", according to the FPF president, Fernando Gomes, with the promotion of women's, futsal, youth and non-professional leagues a big part of the channel's remit.

Channel 11 is based in a dedicated building at the state-of-the-art FPF Cidade do Futebol (City of Football) premises, which opened in March 2016. The complex, which was funded in part by UEFA's HatTrick programme, also houses the FPF's headquarters and technical centre.

Channel 11 objectives

  • Broadcast 24/7
  • Show men's and women's youth national team matches, women's club football and domestic cup matches
  • Generate online editorial content
  • Allow the FPF to provide an alternative to local sports broadcasters
  • Promote different content angles: debate, discussion, training and education.

UEFA Foundation for Children in Portugal

Set up in 2015, the UEFA Foundation uses football as a vehicle to help improve children's lives by supporting hundreds of campaigns and projects across Europe and around the world.

Street Football Move

Traditionally, for many children growing up in Portugal – both in rurally and in cities – playing football in the street has been their introduction into the game and where their passion for it is first ignited. However, a variety of factors has reduced this pathway and Street Football Move was launched to reinvigorate its popularity.

The project takes street football in a van to the children of 12 municipalities in the Bragança district in the northeast of Portugal (a total of 4 cities, 12 small towns and 533 villages). The branded van contains equipment including small goals, balls, markers, roll-ups and T-shirts for the players and a sound system.

The main goal of the project is to give children in the region better access to sport, to get them to move more, to be more active, to have more fun, to develop better social skills and to prevent health problems. It is a great way of promoting physical activity, promoting football and helping in children's education using sport as a tool. It hopes to reach 10,000 participants under the age of 15.

Timeline

Association history

1888 First recorded football match played in Cascais. 1907 Clube Internacional de Football (CIF) become the first Portuguese team to play abroad, losing to Madrid Football Club. 1914 Portuguese Football Union, now named Portuguese Football Federation (FPF), founded on 31 March. 1921 Portuguese national team make debut in 3-1 loss to Spain on 18 December. 1923 FPF is admitted as a full FIFA member. 1925 National team record their first victory, defeating Italy 1-0. 1934 First edition of a national championship. 1938 First Portuguese Cup. 1967 Lisbon hosts the European Champions Clubs' Cup final. 1978 The Portuguese professional football league is founded. 1985 First edition of the women's national football championship. 1992 Lisbon again plays host to a UEFA final, that of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. 2003 Portugal hosts the UEFA European Under-17 Championship. 2004 Portugal hosts UEFA EURO 2004. 2005 The UEFA Cup final is held at the Estádio José Alvalade in Lisbon. 2006 Portugal hosts the European Under-21 Championship finals. 2007 First edition of the Portuguese League Football Cup. 2014 Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica hosts the UEFA Champions League final. 2016 FPF headquarters moves to City of Football in the same year as EURO glory for the senior men's side. 2019 Portugal hosts the UEFA Nations League finals with the national team winning the title. 2020 Lisbon plays host to the UEFA Champions League 'final phase' (quarter-finals onwards). 2021 Porto hosts the UEFA Champions League final. Present day
Portugal won their maiden senior crown at EURO 2016
Portugal won their maiden senior crown at EURO 2016©Getty Images

National team competitions

1961 Under-18s win first national team title, defeating Poland 4-0. 1966 Portugal come third at first World Cup, with the tournament's top scorer Eusébio named as its best player. 1984 A first European Championship finals leads to a semi-final appearance in France. 1989 Under-20 team win world crown, defeating Nigeria 2-0 while, the same year, the Under-16 title is also picked up against East Germany. 1991 The U-20 team win the title again, this time on home soil against Brazil. 1994 Portugal lose Under-21 final to Italy but win U18 crown against Germany. 1995 & 1996 Portugal win back-to-back U16 titles. 1996 The national team reach the quarter-finals in their second EURO. 1999 Portugal win U18 title against Italy. 2000 The men's senior team reach the semi-finals at EURO 2000. 2001, 2015, 2019 The beach soccer team win the world title. 2002, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2019, 2020 The beach soccer team win the European title. 2003 The U16s win the European Championship, defeating Spain in the final. 2004 Portugal are runners-up on home soil to Greece at EURO 2004. 2006 Having played at the 1986 and 2002 World Cups, Portugal finish fourth at their fourth appearance. 2015 The Under-21s are runners-up to Sweden in the European Championships. 2016 Portugal win first major championship title at EURO 2016. The U17s also win their final tournament. 2017 The senior women's team make first-ever participation at a UEFA Women's EURO. 2018 Portugal's futsal team win first European title and men's football U19s defeat Italy 4-3 to win the continental crown. 2019 The senior men's team win the first UEFA Nations League, defeating the Netherlands 1-0 in the Porto final. The women's futsal team finish runners-up to Spain in European Championship. 2023 Cristiano Ronaldo becomes first man to play 200 internationals, marking the occasion with two goals to give him a total of 123 (as of 20 June 2023). Present day

President

Fernando Gomes

Nationality: Portuguese
Date of birth: 21 February 1952
Association president since: 2011

©UEFA

General secretary

Teresa Romão

Nationality: Portuguese
Date of birth: 24 May 1979
Association general secretary since: 2022

Portuguese Football Federation website