S.L. Benfica
Sport Lisboa e Benfica ComC MHIH OM known as Benfica, is a sports club based in Lisbon, Portugal. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of the Portuguese football league system, where they are the most successful club in terms of titles won. Founded on 28 February 1904 as Sport Lisboa, Benfica is one of the "Big Three" clubs in Portugal that have never been relegated from the Primeira Liga, along with rivals Sporting CP and FC Porto; the Benfica team is nicknamed Águias, for the symbol atop the club's crest, Encarnados, for the shirt colour. Since 2003, their home ground has been the Estádio da Luz, which replaced the larger, original one, built in 1954. Benfica is the most supported Portuguese club, with an estimated 14 million supporters worldwide, the European club with the highest percentage of supporters in its own country having 206,437 members; the club's anthem, "Ser Benfiquista", refers to its supporters. Águia Vitória is their mascot.
Benfica is honoured of Prince Henry and of Merit. With a total of 81 major trophies won – 82 including the Latin Cup – Benfica is the most decorated club in Portugal, they have won 79 domestic trophies: a record 36 Primeira Liga titles, a record 26 Taça de Portugal, a record 7 Taça da Liga, 7 Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira and 3 Campeonato de Portugal. Internationally, they won back-to-back European Cups in 1961 and 1962 – a unique feat in Portuguese football – and were runners-up at the Intercontinental Cup in 1961 and'62, at the European Cup in 1963,'65,'68,'88 and'90, at the UEFA Cup/Europa League in 1983, 2013 and'14. Benfica's ten European finals are a domestic record and ranked seventh all-time among UEFA clubs in 2014. Moreover, Benfica hold the European record for the most consecutive wins in domestic league and the record for the longest unbeaten run in Primeira Liga, where they became the first undefeated champions, in 1972–73. Benfica was ranked twelfth in FIFA Club of the Century and ninth in IFFHS Top 200 European clubs of the 20th century.
Benfica is ranked 20th in the UEFA club coefficient rankings and has the second most participations in the European Cup/UEFA Champions League. In this tournament, they hold the overall record for the biggest aggregate win, achieved in 1965–66. On 28 February 1904, members of Associação do Bem met at the back of Farmácia Franco on Rua de Belém with the goal of forming a social and cultural football club called Sport Lisboa, composed of Portuguese players only. 24 people attended the meeting, including Cosme Damião, who would be the club's most important leader in the first decades. In that meeting, José Rosa Rodrigues was appointed club president, along with Daniel Brito as secretary and Manuel Gourlade as treasurer; the founders decided that the club's colours would be red and white and that the crest would be composed of an eagle, the motto "E pluribus unum" and a football. Sport Lisboa played their first match on 1 January 1905, scoring their first goal. Despite important victories, the club suffered from poor operating conditions, namely the football dirt field Terras do Desembargador.
As a result, eight players started the rivalry between the clubs. On 13 September 1908, Sport Lisboa acquired Grupo Sport Benfica by mutual agreement and changed its name to Sport Lisboa e Benfica. Despite the club merger, they continued their respective club operations. For Sport Lisboa, they maintained the football team, the shirt colours, the eagle symbol and the motto. For Grupo Sport Benfica, they maintained the field Campo da Feiteira, the main directors and the club's house. Both clubs determined that the foundation date should coincide with Sport Lisboa's because it was the most recognised club and quite popular in Lisbon due to its football merits. In regard to the crest, a cycling wheel was added to Sport Lisboa's to represent the most important sport of Grupo Sport Benfica. Furthermore, the two entities of the "new" club had simultaneous members who helped stabilise operations, which increased the success of the merger. However, problems with the club's rented field remained. Benfica moved to their first football grass field, Campo de Sete Rios, in 1913.
Four years after refusing an increase in rent, they relocated to Campo de Benfica. In 1925, they moved to their own stadium, the Estádio das Amoreiras, playing there fifteen years before moving to the Estádio do Campo Grande in 1940; the Portuguese league began in 1934, after finishing third in its first edition, Benfica won the next three championships in a row – the club's first tri, achieved by Lippo Hertzka. Throughout the 1940s, Benfica would win three more Primeira Liga and four Taça de Portugal, with coach János Biri achieving the first double for the club in 1943. Benfica's first international success happened in 1950 when they won the Latin Cup, defeating Bordeaux with a golden goal from Julinho at the Estádio Nacional in Lisbon, with Ted Smith as coach, it was the first major international trophy won by a Portuguese club. They reached another final of the competition in 1957 but lost to Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu. With the election of president Joaquim Ferreira Bogalho in 1952 and the arrival of coach Otto Glória in 1954, Benfica became more modernised and professional and moved into the original Estádio da Luz, with an initial seating capacity of 40,000.
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Panathinaikos F.C.
Panathinaikos Football Club, known as Panathinaikos, or by its full name, the name of its parent sports club, Panathinaikos A. O. or PAO, is a Greek professional football club based in the capital-city of Athens. The name "Panathinaikos" was inspired by the ancient work of Isocrates, where the orator praises the Athenians for their democratic education and their military superiority, used for the benefit of all Greeks. Today a part of Panathinaikos A. O. they are the oldest active football club in Greece founded only to practice this sport. Created in 1908 as "Podosfairikos Omilos Athinon" by Georgios Kalafatis, they play in the Super League Greece, being one of the most successful clubs in Greek football and one of three clubs which have never been relegated from the top division. Amongst their major titles are 20 Greek Championships, 18 Greek Cups, achieving eight times the Double, 3 Greek Super Cups, they are the only club that won a championship undefeated, going without a loss in a top-flight campaign, a feat that no other club in Greece has been able to achieve.
Panathinaikos is the most successful Greek club in terms of achievements in the European competitions. It is the only Greek team that has reached the European Cup final in 1971, the semi-finals twice, in 1985 and 1996, it is the only Greek team that has played for the Intercontinental Cup. Furthermore, they have reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League on another two occasions, as well as the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup twice, they have won the Balkans Cup in 1977. Panathinaikos is a member of the European Club Association. Since the 1950s, the club maintains some of the oldest and most successful academies in Greece, producing talent for the first team and feeding the Greek national football team. Panathinaikos became professional and independent in 1979, they have played their home games in the Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium, considered their traditional home ground, the Athens Olympic Stadium. According to the most recent researches and polls, Panathinaikos is the second-most popular football team in Greece, with the percentage difference between Olympiacos and themselves varying between 2% to 9%.
The club has million of fans inside Greece and millions of others in the Greek communities all over the world. They hold a long-term rivalry with Olympiacos, the clash between the two teams being referred to as the "Derby of the eternal enemies."The derby of the eternal enemies is traditionally included among the world's top 10 greatest football derbies, by the international media, compared with rivalries such as Boca Juniors-River Plate, Real Madrid-Barcelona, Rangers-Celtic,Galatasaray-Fenerbahce and Manchester United-Liverpool. According to the official history of the club, Panathinaikos was founded by Giorgos Kalafatis on 3 February 1908, when he and 40 other athletes decided to break away from Panellinios Gymnastikos Syllogos following the club's decision to discontinue its football team; the name of the new club was "Podosferikos Omilos Athinon". It was founded with the aim of spreading and making more known this new sport to the Athenian and Greek public in general; the intention of the founders was to create a team for all of Athens and to be connected with the rest of the European football movement, active.
The first president elected was Alexandros Kalafatis, brother of Giorgos. The ground of the team was in Patission Street. Oxford University athlete John Cyril Campbell was brought in as coach, the first time that a foreigner was appointed as the coach of a Greek team. Konstantinos Tsiklitiras, the great Greek athlete of the early 20th century, played as goalkeeper for the new team. In 1910, after a dispute among a number of board members, Kalafatis with most of the players—also followed by Campbell—decided to pull out of POA and secured a new ground in Amerikis Square. Subsequently, the name of the club changed to Panellinios Podosferikos Omilos and its colours to green and white. By 1914, Campbell had returned to England but the club was at the top of Greek football with players such as Michalis Papazoglou, Michalis Rokkos and Loukas Panourgias. In 1918, the team adopted the trifolium as its emblem. In 1921 and 1922, the Athens-Piraeus FCA organized the first two post-WWI championships, in both of which PPO was declared champion.
By that stage, the club had outgrown both the grounds in Patission Street and Amerikis Square, due to its expansion in other sports, began to look at vacant land in the area of Perivola on Alexandras Avenue as its potential new ground. After long discussions with the Municipality of Athens, an agreement was reached and in 1922 Leoforos was granted to the club; the move to a permanent home ground heralded another—final—name change to Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos, "All-Athenian Athletic Club", on 15 March 1924, from now on a multi-sport club. However, the decision was taken by 1922. In 1926, the Hellenic Football Federation was founded and the first Greek Championship under its authority took place in 1927. Panathinaikos won undefeated the Championship of 1929–30 under the guidance of József Künsztler and Angelos Messaris as the team's star player. Other notable players of this Belle Époque period of the team were Antonis Migiakis, Diomidis Symeonidis, Mimis Pierrakos and Stefanos Pierrakos, amo
Association football
Association football, more known as football or soccer, is a team sport played with a spherical ball between two teams of eleven players. It is played by 250 million players in over 200 countries and dependencies, making it the world's most popular sport; the game is played on a rectangular field called a pitch with a goal at each end. The object of the game is to score by moving the ball beyond the goal line into the opposing goal. Association football is one of a family of football codes, which emerged from various ball games played worldwide since antiquity; the modern game traces its origins to 1863 when the Laws of the Game were codified in England by The Football Association. Players are not allowed to touch the ball with hands or arms while it is in play, except for the goalkeepers within the penalty area. Other players use their feet to strike or pass the ball, but may use any other part of their body except the hands and the arms; the team that scores most goals by the end of the match wins.
If the score is level at the end of the game, either a draw is declared or the game goes into extra time or a penalty shootout depending on the format of the competition. Association football is governed internationally by the International Federation of Association Football, which organises World Cups for both men and women every four years; the rules of association football were codified in England by the Football Association in 1863 and the name association football was coined to distinguish the game from the other forms of football played at the time rugby football. The first written "reference to the inflated ball used in the game" was in the mid-14th century: "Þe heued fro þe body went, Als it were a foteballe"; the Online Etymology Dictionary states that the "rules of the game" were made in 1848, before the "split off in 1863". The term soccer comes from a slang or jocular abbreviation of the word "association", with the suffix "-er" appended to it; the word soccer was first recorded in 1889 in the earlier form of socca.
Within the English-speaking world, association football is now called "football" in the United Kingdom and "soccer" in Canada and the United States. People in countries where other codes of football are prevalent may use either term, although national associations in Australia and New Zealand now use "football" for the formal name. According to FIFA, the Chinese competitive game cuju is the earliest form of football for which there is evidence. Cuju players could use any part of the body apart from hands and the intent was kicking a ball through an opening into a net, it was remarkably similar to modern football. During the Han Dynasty, cuju games were standardised and rules were established. Phaininda and episkyros were Greek ball games. An image of an episkyros player depicted in low relief on a vase at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens appears on the UEFA European Championship Cup. Athenaeus, writing in 228 AD, referenced the Roman ball game harpastum. Phaininda and harpastum were played involving hands and violence.
They all appear to have resembled rugby football and volleyball more than what is recognizable as modern football. As with pre-codified "mob football", the antecedent of all modern football codes, these three games involved more handling the ball than kicking. Other games included kemari in chuk-guk in Korea. Association football in itself does not have a classical history. Notwithstanding any similarities to other ball games played around the world FIFA has recognised that no historical connection exists with any game played in antiquity outside Europe; the modern rules of association football are based on the mid-19th century efforts to standardise the varying forms of football played in the public schools of England. The history of football in England dates back to at least the eighth century AD; the Cambridge Rules, first drawn up at Cambridge University in 1848, were influential in the development of subsequent codes, including association football. The Cambridge Rules were written at Trinity College, Cambridge, at a meeting attended by representatives from Eton, Rugby and Shrewsbury schools.
They were not universally adopted. During the 1850s, many clubs unconnected to schools or universities were formed throughout the English-speaking world, to play various forms of football; some came up with their own distinct codes of rules, most notably the Sheffield Football Club, formed by former public school pupils in 1857, which led to formation of a Sheffield FA in 1867. In 1862, John Charles Thring of Uppingham School devised an influential set of rules; these ongoing efforts contributed to the formation of The Football Association in 1863, which first met on the morning of 26 October 1863 at the Freemasons' Tavern in Great Queen Street, London. The only school to be represented on this occasion was Charterhouse; the Freemason's Tavern was the setting for five more meetings between October and December, which produced the first comprehensive set of rules. At the final meeting, the first FA treasurer, the representative from Blackheath, withdrew his club from the FA over the removal of two draft rules at the previous meeting: the first allowed for running with the ball in hand.
Other English rugby clubs followed this lead and did not join the FA and instead in 1871 formed the Rugby Football Union. The eleven remaining clubs, under
Santarém District
The District of Santarém is a district of Portugal, located in Portugal's Centro Region. The district capital is the city of Santarém; the district is the 3rd largest in Portugal, with an area of 6,747 km2, a population of 475,344 inhabitants, giving it a population density of 70 people per sq. kilometer. The district includes the following 21 municipalities. Abrantes Alcanena Almeirim Alpiarça Benavente Cartaxo Chamusca Constância Coruche Entroncamento Ferreira do Zêzere Golegã Mação Ourém Rio Maior Salvaterra de Magos Santarém Sardoal Tomar Torres Novas Vila Nova da Barquinha The village of Almonda, within the civil parish of Zibreira, is noted for the Aroeira cave, where the 400,000 year old Aroeira 3 skull of a Homo Heidelbergensis was discovered in 2014, it is the oldest trace of human habitation in Portugal. Arripiado, a village in the district of Santarém
Forward (association football)
Forwards are the players on an association football team who play nearest to the opposing team's goal, are therefore most responsible for scoring goals. Their advanced position and limited defensive responsibilities mean forwards score more goals on behalf of their team than other players. Modern team formations include one to three forwards. Unconventional formations may include none; the traditional role of a centre-forward is to score the majority of goals on behalf of the team. The player may be used to win long balls or receive passes and retain possession of the ball with their back to goal as teammates advance, in order to provide depth for their team or help teammates score by providing a pass. Most modern centre-forwards operate in front of the second strikers or central attacking midfielders, do the majority of the ball handling outside the box; the present role of centre-forward is sometimes interchangeable with that of an attacking midfielder in the 4–3–1–2 or 4–1–2–1–2 formations.
The term "target man" is used to describe a particular type of striker whose main role is to win high balls in the air and create chances for other members of the team. These players are tall and physically strong, being adept at heading the ball; the term centre-forward is taken from the early football playing formation in which there were five forward players: two outside forwards, two inside forwards, one centre-forward. When numbers were introduced in the 1933 English FA Cup final, one of the two centre-forwards that day wore the number nine – Everton's Dixie Dean a strong, powerful forward who had set the record for the most goals scored in a season in English football during the 1927–28 season; the number would become synonymous with the centre-forward position. The role of a striker is rather different from that of a traditional centre-forward, although the terms centre-forward and striker are used interchangeably at times, as both play further up the field than other players, while tall and technical players, like Zlatan Ibrahimović, have qualities which are suited to both positions.
Like the centre-forward, the traditional role of a striker is to score goals. They are fast players with good ball control and dribbling abilities. More agile strikers like Michael Owen have an advantage over taller defenders due to their short bursts of speed. A good striker should be able to shoot confidently with either foot, possess great power and accuracy, have the ability to link-up with teammates and pass the ball under pressure in breakaway situations. While many strikers wear the number 9 shirt, the position, to a lesser degree, is associated with the number 10, worn by more creative deep-lying forwards such as Pelé, with numbers 7 and 11, which are associated with wingers. Deep-lying forwards have a long history in the game, but the terminology to describe their playing activity has varied over the years; such players were termed inside forwards, creative or deep-lying centre-forwards. More two more variations of this old type of player have developed: the second, or shadow, or support, or auxiliary striker and, in what is in fact a distinct position unto its own, the number 10, exemplified by Dennis Bergkamp.
Other number 10s who play further back, such as Diego Maradona and Zinedine Zidane, are described as an attacking midfielder or the playmaker. The second striker position is a loosely defined and most misapplied description of a player positioned somewhere between the out-and-out striker, whether he is a "target-man" or more of a "poacher", the Number 10 or attacking midfielder, while showing some of the characteristics of both. In fact, a term coined by French advanced playmaker Michel Platini, the "nine-and-a-half", which he used to describe Roberto Baggio's playing role, has been an attempt to become a standard in defining the position. Conceivably, a Number 10 can alternate as a second-striker provided that he is a prolific goalscorer. Second or support strikers do not tend to get as involved in the orchestration of attacks as the Number 10, nor do they bring as many other players into play, since they do not share the burden of responsibility, functioning predominantly as assist providers.
In Italy, this role is known as a "rifinitore" or "seconda punta", whereas in Brazil, it is known as "segundo atacante" or "ponta-de-lança". The position of inside forward was popularly used in the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries; the inside forwards would support the centre-forward and making space in the opposition defence, and, as the passing game developed, supporting him or her with passes. The role is broadly analogous to the "hole" or second striker position in the modern game, although here there were two such players, known as inside right and inside left. In early 2–3–5 formations the inside-forwards would flank the centre-forward on both sides. With the advent of
Feyenoord
Feyenoord Rotterdam is a Dutch professional football club based in Rotterdam, that plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed its name to SC Feijenoord in 1912, SC Feyenoord in 1974, Feyenoord Rotterdam in 1978, when SC Feyenoord became a separate amateur team. Since 1937, Feyenoord's home ground has been Stadion Feijenoord, nicknamed De Kuip. Feyenoord is one of the most successful clubs in the Netherlands, winning 15 Eredivisie titles, 13 KNVB Cups, 4 Johan Cruyff Shields. Internationally, it has won one European Cup, two UEFA Cups, one Intercontinental Cup; the club has played continuously in the top tier of the Dutch football system since gaining promotion to Eerste Klasse in 1921, more times than any other club in the country, including the likes of Ajax and PSV Eindhoven. Feyenoord is known as a people's club with a huge international support; the club's most successful period in history was the 1960s and'70s, when Coen Moulijn and Ove Kindvall led the club to six league titles, two European trophies, an Intercontinental Cup, thereby becoming the first Dutch club in history to win both the European Cup and the Intercontinental Cup.
In the 21st century, Feyenoord ended an 18-year league title drought in 2017 and won the 2002 UEFA Cup against Borussia Dortmund in its home stadium. Feyenoord has a longstanding rivalry with Ajax, a clash between two teams from the two biggest cities in the Netherlands, called De Klassieker; the club's anthem is "Hand in Hand". As of 2019, Feyenoord will become a multi-sports club; the football club Wilhelmina was founded in the pub De Vereeniging on 19 July 1908 and played in blue-sleeved red shirts and white shorts. Between 1908, 1910, 1911, 1912, the club underwent a series of changes of name and team colours, becoming Hillesluise Football Club in 1909, RVV Celeritas. Upon earning promotion to the National football association in 1912, the club renamed to SC Feijenoord, changed uniform once again, adopting the red and white shirts, black shorts and black socks that they still wear today. In 1918, Feijenoord were promoted to the highest level of Dutch football and moved to the ground Kromme Zandweg.
After 18 years, the formation of the club and a mere three years after they were promoted to the highest level of Dutch football Feijenoord earned their first honours by capturing the national league championship in 1924. The team enjoyed a string of successes in the latter half of the decade, taking divisional titles in 1926, 1927, 1928 and 1929, winning their second national championship in 1928. Feijenoord won their first Dutch Cup in 1930 by scoring the only goal in a derby final against Excelsior, they continued to dominate their division with three consecutive titles, but were winless in subsequent championship finals. Five years after their first cup win, Feijenoord took the prize for a second time in 1935, by beating Helmond Sport. Feijenoord started to attract more fans to their stadium at Kromme Zandweg, in 1933, they decided to build a new facility; the club moved to the Feijenoord Stadion in 1937, playing the first match there on 27 March against Beerschot. During this period Feijenoord won three consecutive division titles from 1936 to 1938, with their third and fourth national championships coming in 1936 and 1938.
During World War II, Feijenoord played their matches at Sparta Rotterdam's Kasteel, as the Nazis had occupied De Kuip. When Het Kasteel was unavailable due to clashes with Sparta fixtures, Feijenoord played at their former ground, the Kromme Zandweg. Feijenoord's again won a division title with a national championship in 1940, their fifth Dutch title. During the German occupation of the Netherlands, play continued in Dutch football leagues, though the 1945 championship was cancelled as the war came to its conclusion. During this period, Feijenoord's only trophy was a divisional championship in 1943. After the war, Feijenoord did not perform as well as they had in previous decades, not challenging in their division and so missing the national playoff rounds. On 30 June 1954, the chairmen of the three biggest Rotterdam teams organised a meeting in Utrecht, attended by several chairmen of other clubs and a delegation of the KNVB to discuss the start of professional football in the Netherlands; the professional era commenced with the first Eredivisie season in 1954/1955.
Feijenoord were one of the clubs participating in the inaugural Eredivisie and have never been relegated. One of the most memorable matches in these first years of professional football was the clash between Feijenoord and the Volewijckers at 2 April 1956, which Feijenoord won 11–4, with nine goals by Henk Schouten. Feijenoord would grow an intense rivalry with Ajax. Matches between the two clubs were dubbed as de Klassieker; the first memorable Klassieker from a Feijenoord point of view took place at 11 November 1956, when Daan den Bleijker scored four times to give Feijenoord a 7–3 win over their archrivals. Feijenoord claimed their first professional Eredivisie Championship and their sixth Dutch Championship in 1961. On the road to the title Ajax was beaten 9–5 in De Kuip, four of Feijenoord's goals were scored by Henk Schouten; the following season, they played their first European Cup match facing IFK Göteborg. The Swedes were beaten 8 -- 2 in Rotterdam. Feijenoord were eliminated by Tottenham Hotspur in the following round.
In 1962, Feijenoord defended their Dutch Championship title and rea
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