The Portuguese football leagues are divided into divisions (''divisões'', singular – ''divisão''). The top teams play in the Primeira Liga, named Liga NOS for sponsorship reasons. In each division, with rare exceptions, a team plays all other teams twice, once at home and once away. One can divide the competitions in professional and non-professional. The Portuguese league and

federation A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-govern ...

teams compete in Europe under

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

, most notably in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

, but also in the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

, in the extinct

Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

and sometimes in the UEFA Intertoto Cup, European Super Cup and the extinct UEFA/Conmebol Intercontinental Cup (Toyota Cup). They can also compete in the FIFA Club World Cup, although until today no Portuguese team reached this recent competition. The teams also compete in a domestic cup competition each year, called

Cup of Portugal A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay, ...

(''Taça de Portugal'') and the winners play against the champions in the

SuperCup Cândido de Oliveira A super cup is a competition, usually but not exclusively in association football, which often forms the 'curtain raiser' to a season, and typically involves only two teams who have qualified through success in other competitions during the prev ...

Current hierarchical divisional breakdowns

*Professional ** Primeira Liga - First Division (18 teams) ** Segunda Liga - Second Division (18 teams) *Non-professional ** Campeonato de Portugal - Third Division (72 teams) ** Portuguese District First Levels - Fourth Division ** Portuguese District Second Levels - Fifth Division ** Portuguese District Third Levels - Sixth Division ** Portuguese District Fourth Levels - Seventh Division

Current hierarchical divisional breakdowns

Primeira Liga teams (2018–19 season)

Segunda Liga teams (2018–19 season)

Campeonato de Portugal teams (2018–19 season)

Serie A

Serie B

Serie C

Serie D

Notable extinct teams

See also