History Of Of Sport Lisboa e Benfica (S.L Benfica)

 Logo Of Sport Lisboa e Benfica

Sport Lisboa e Benfica (Portuguese pronunciation: [spɔɾ liʒˈboɐ i bɐ̃ȷ̃ˈfikɐ]; Euronext: SLBEN), also Benfica Lisbon or simply Benfica, is a multi-sports club based in Lisbon, Portugal.

Although they compete in a number of different sports, Benfica is mainly known for its association football team. Historically, Benfica has been one of the most successful football clubs in Portugal and Europe and is one of the Três Grandes, or Big Three, football clubs in Portugal, with Futebol Clube do Porto and Sporting Clube de Portugal being the other two clubs, Benfica's two biggest rivals.

Costume Of Sport Lisboa e Benfica

 

Benfica was one of the founding members of the Portuguese Liga in 1933, and, together with Porto and Sporting, they have never been relegated from the First Division (Portuguese: Primeira Divisão) of Portuguese football.

On 28 February 1904, Sport Lisboa e Benfica (originally known as Grupo Sport Lisboa, English: Lisbon Sport Group) was founded during a meeting in the southwest part of Lisbon involving 24 young men, led by Cosme Damião. As a result of this meeting, one of the most popular and successful football clubs in Portugal was created, as well as one of the most internationally recognized football clubs in the world.

On 30 September 2009, Benfica announced that it had reached the 200,000 mark for paid club members. In May 2004, Benfica launched an aggressive marketing campaign known as kit sócio (membership kit) to increase its paid club membership from 94,714 to 200,000. As a result, five years later, Benfica was able to add more than 105,000 new paid club members to their existing membership of 94,714, which more than doubled their total paid club membership. Benfica currently remains the leader of international football clubs with the largest number of paying club members worldwide. As of 23 June 2010, Benfica has a reported 218,216 paid club members.

On 28 February 1904, a meeting of young people from the Belém neighborhood of Lisbon and former students from the Real Casa Pia de Lisboa took place at the Farmácia Franco (Franco Pharmacy), located on Rua de Belém in the southwest part of Lisbon, with the goal of forming a new football club that would be called Grupo Sport Lisboa. There were a total of 24 people who attended the meeting, including the co-founder and future soul of the football club, Cosme Damião. During the meeting, José Rosa Rodrigues was appointed as the club's first president, along with Daniel Brito as secretary and Manuel Gourlade as treasurer.

The first game was played in January 1905. Despite important football victories in the first few years, the club suffered due to poor operating conditions. As a result, in 1907, several players from the first team joined the then more prosperous Sporting Clube de Portugal, located across the city.

In 1908, Grupo Sport Lisboa acquired, by mutual agreement, the Sport Clube de Benfica, a club founded in 1906 as Grupo Sport Benfica and later changed its name to Sport Clube de Benfica. Despite the merger of the two football clubs, Grupo Sport Lisboa and Sport Clube de Benfica continued their respective club operations. For Grupo Sport Lisboa, they maintained the football team, the red and white shirt colors, the eagle as the symbol, the "E Pluribus Unum" as the motto, and the logo. For Sport Clube de Benfica, they maintained the football field, the main directors, and the club's house.

During the 1970s, the team faded slightly from the European scene, but remained the main force inside Portuguese football, winning six championships (1971, '72, '73, '75, '76, and '77) and two Portuguese cups (1970 and '72). Jimmy Hagan led the club to three successive Portuguese championships, and once to the national cup between 1970 and 1973. Benfica also attracted Europe-wide attention when the team reached the semi-finals of the European Cup of Champions, where the team was only narrowly defeated 1–0 on aggregate by the legendary Ajax side of that era.

Financial trouble began to undermine the club due to rampant spending and a questionable signing policy which allowed for squads composed of well over 30 players. Consequently, the period from 1994 through 2003 was arguably the darkest in the history of Benfica. During this time, Benfica only won one Portuguese Cup in 1996 and finished in embarrassing positions, such as sixth in 2000–01 and fourth in 2001–02. The debts were accumulating, and nearly every year saw the hire of a new Benfica coach and the addition of high-priced but under-performing players.

On 8 June 2009, manager Quique Sánchez Flores resigned as coach after agreeing to a friendly contractual termination; he was replaced by former Sporting de Braga manager Jorge Jesus on 17 June.

On 12 July 2009, Benfica tied 2–2 against Sion in their first of ten friendlies in the 2009–10 preseason with Óscar Cardozo and Javier Saviola each scoring a goal. On 13 July, in their second friendly, they beat defending UEFA Cup-champions Shakhtar Donetsk 2–0, with goals coming from Cardozo and Carlos Martins. On 16 July, in their third friendly, Benfica beat Athletic Bilbao 2–1 with Saviola scoring two second-half goals.

On 13 April 2010 in the Lisbon Derby, Benfica played another important match against "capital rivals" Sporting. The match began with Sporting creating more goal opportunities in the first half. Given Benfica's poor tactics, Jorge Jesus replaced Éder Luis with Pablo Aimar. This substitution helped to dramactically improve Benfica's play-making abilities. During the match, Fábio Coentrão placed the ball in the penalty area for Óscar Cardozo to score. Later on, Pablo Aimar, after a great pass from Ramires, managed to score the 2nd goal for Benfica.

Stadium Of Sport Lisboa e Benfica

On 9 May 2010, Benfica won their final match against Rio Ave and became the Champion of the 2009–2010 Season. Óscar Cardozo scored twice in the game, which made him the top scorer of the season with 26 goals. At the end of the season, Benfica finished 5 points ahead of runner-up, SC Braga (the best result that Braga has had in the history of their football club), with 76 points out of a possible 90. During the 2009–10 Portuguese Liga, Benfica recorded 24 victories, 4 draws and 2 defeats, with 78 goals scored and only 20 allowed. As the 2009–10 Portuguese Liga Champions, Benfica secured their direct entry into the Group Stage of the 2010-11 UEFA Champions League.