Futebol Clube de Alverca is a Portuguese football club based in

Alverca do Ribatejo Alverca do Ribatejo () is a city (''cidade'') and a former civil parish in the municipality of Vila Franca de Xira, Portugal. In 2013, the parish merged into the new parish Alverca do Ribatejo e Sobralinho. It covers an area of and had a po ...

Vila Franca de Xira Vila Franca de Xira () is a city and municipality in the Lisbon District in Portugal. The population in 2021 was 137,659, in an area of 318.19 km2. Situated on both banks of the Tagus River, 32 km north-east of the Portuguese capital ...

. It currently plays in the Portuguese 3rd Division.

History

F.C. Alverca was founded on 1 September 1939. After many decades in the lower levels of Portuguese football, Alverca was promoted to the top level in 1998, and played there in four of the next five editions, also coming back for 2003–04, which also ended in

relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

; during most of this time, the club acted as

feeder club In sports, a farm team, farm system, feeder team, feeder club, or nursery club is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a higher ...

S.L. Benfica Sport Lisboa e Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football. Founded on 28 February 1904 as ''Sport Lisboa'', Be ...

. Alverca played one more year in level two, before folding for financial reasons, in 2005. In 2006, Alverca re-formed, beginning at regional level in the

Lisbon Football Association The Lisbon Football Association (''Associação de Futebol de Lisboa'', abrv. ''AF Lisboa'') is the district governing body for the all football competitions in the Portuguese district of Lisbon. It is also the regulator of the clubs registered in ...

's District Leagues, and being promoted in 2007–08 to the first division of that category. In 2017–18, Alverca won promotion back to the national level, as district champions. On 17 October 2019, Alverca won 2–0 in the third round of the

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of Portugal") is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Placard since the 2015–16 sea ...

against Big Three club

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional foot ...

, becoming only the second third-tier club in history to knock that team out the cup; the other was F.C. Tirsense in 1948. Fellow Primeira Liga club Rio Ave F.C. beat Alverca by a single goal in the next round. Alex Apolinário, scorer of the first goal in the win over Sporting, died in January 2021 days after collapsing in a match for Alverca.

Stadium

The club's home venue is the 7,705 capacity Complexo Desportivo do FC Alverca.

Players

Current squad

League and cup history

References

External links

Official site

Zerozero team profile
Football clubs in Portugal Association football clubs established in 1939 1939 establishments in Portugal Primeira Liga clubs Liga Portugal 2 clubs {{portugal-footyclub-stub