Sporting Clube de Portugal, otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, simply as Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football.
Founded on 1 July 1906, Sporting is one of the "Big Three" clubs in Portugal that have never been relegated from Primeira Liga, along with rivals Benfica and Porto. Sporting are nicknamed Leões (Lions), for the symbol used in the middle of the club's crest, and Verde e Brancos (Green and Whites), for the shirt colour that are in (horizontal) stripes. Their home ground has been the Estádio José Alvalade, built in 2003, which replaced the previous one, built in 1956. The club's anthem is called "A Marcha do Sporting" ("Sporting's March", written in 1955) and its supporters are called Sportinguistas. Sporting are the second largest sports club by membership in Portugal, with more than 160,000 members.
Sporting are the third most decorated Portuguese football team, with 54 major trophies. Domestically, they have won 19 League titles, 17 Taças de Portugal, a joint-record of 4 Campeonato de Portugal, 4 Taças da Liga and 9 Supertaças Cândido de Oliveira. In Europe, they won the 1963–64 European Cup Winners' Cup and were runners-up at the UEFA Cup in 2005. Sporting played in the first European Champions Cup match, on 4 September 1955, by invitation and has participated in the most editions of UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League (32), a tournament in which they have the second most matches played and won, and where they are ranked 2nd in the all-time club ranking.
Rúben Amorim
