The island of Santo Antão in Cape Verde in the west of the

Barlavento Islands Cape Verde (formally, the Republic of Cabo Verde) is a group of arid Atlantic islands which are home to distinct communities of plants, birds, and reptiles. Location and description The Cape Verde Islands are located in the mid-Atlantic Ocean ...

is home to several teams and clubs. The major amateur clubs are

Sporting Clube do Porto Novo Sporting Clube de Porto Novo ( Capeverdean Crioulo, ALUPEC or ALUPEK: ''Sporting Klubi di Purtu Nobu'') is a football club that had played in the Premier division and plays in the Santo Antão Island South Zone Division in Cape Verde. It is bas ...

, Académica Porto Novo and Paulense. Its first football championship was founded in 1996 and from 2002, the association and competition are currently divided into two zones, the north (the championships and the

association Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...

) and the south (the championship and the association) and includes all sports including football, basketball, volleyball and athletics and may have futsal today. Other than football, it has a single regional association covering the island.

Football (soccer)

Football (soccer) remains to be the most popular sport both in the island and the nation. The island has 20 football (soccer) clubs, of which 9 are in the North Zone (6 in the Premier Division and 5 in the Second Division) and nine in the South Zone. Unlike other parts of Cape Verde, Santo Antão was the last inhabited island to have its own island championships founded in 1995, before clubs played with other unregistered clubs before its foundation. Difficulties with accessing the north and south parts of the island split into two groups in 1998 and in 2003, the association split. In 2007, an all-island cup was established with Rosariense was the first winner, the next edition was in 2016 as the north and south parts of the island became partly easily accessible with Estrada Litoral opened in 2009 which runs in the eastern edge of the island and the third was in 2017. The first Santo Antão Super Cup took place in 2015. Also the island has each zone a cup and a super cup competitions, until 2014, it also had an opening tournament competitions. The original four of each zones (totalled eight then) competed in the regional championships up to 2003. More clubs added and brought a total to seven in 2005 for the North Zone and in 2008, seven in the South Zone and eight in 2009. Three more clubs added which made a total of nine as late as 2011 brought the North Zone to be the only part to have tiers two and three. In 2014, Tarrafal FC de Monte Trigo was founded in the South Zone. Two more were founded recently in the North Zone, Santo Crucífixio was founded in 2015 and participated in the North Zone's Premier Division after being promoted in 2016, Torreense is the youngest club founded in 2016 and is the only club who competed only in the Second Division. The oldest football and sports club on the island is Sporting Carvoeiros which was founded in 1956, after the town completed its port and became the island's name, the town's name changed along with the club and became Sporting Porto Novo, second is Paulense and third is Académica Porto Novo. The most successful club is Académica do Porto which has been since 2011 and may became the top ten or fifteen clubs in the country and recently won eleven championship titles for the South Zone in 2017. As of 2016, the Santo Antão North Zone's clubs are Beira Mar, Foguetões, Janela, Paulense, Santo Crucifixo and

Sinagoga Sinagoga is a settlement in the northeastern part of the island of Santo Antão, Cape Verde. It is situated on the coast, 4 kilometers east of Ribeira Grande and 18 km north-northeast of the island capital Porto Novo. It is situated on the na ...

in the Premier Division and Irmãos Unidos, Rosariense, São Pedro Apostolo, Solpontense and Torreense in the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

. Of the 20 clubs, the largest are concentrated in the

Porto Novo , , ; ; ; also known as Hogbonu and Ajashe) is the capital and second-largest city of Benin. The commune covers an area of and as of 2002 had a population of 223,552 people. In 1863, following British bombardment, Porto-Novo accepted French ...

numbering nine, of which five are based in the town that is also an island capital, seven are based in the municipality of

Ribeira Grande Ribeira Grande may refer to the following places: Cape Verde * Ribeira Grande (stream), a stream on the island of Santo Antão * Ribeira Grande, Cape Verde, a town on the island of Santo Antão * Ribeira Grande, Cape Verde (municipality), a municip ...

and four in the municipality of

Paul Paul may refer to: People * Paul (given name), a given name, including a list of people * Paul (surname), a list of people * Paul the Apostle, an apostle who wrote many of the books of the New Testament * Ray Hildebrand, half of the singing duo ...

. Overall, Porto Novo has the most titles numbering 17, second is Paul with nine and third is Ribeira Grande with ten. The island also features some municipal football (soccer) tournaments, in Paul and Ribeira Grande which have their own Municipal Tournament.

Basketball

Basketball is the second most popular sport on the island. They have a single championship which started around the start of the 21st century and does not have that many clubs.

Volleyball

Volleyball is another sport in Cape Verde, the most popular club is

Académica do Porto Novo Associação Académica do Porto Novo ( Capeverdean Crioulo, ALUPEC or ALUPEK: ''Asosiason Académica du Portu Nobu'', Santo Antão Crioulo: ''Associaçôm Akadémica d' Port' Novo'', São Vicente Crioulo: ''Associação Akadémika d' Port' N ...

. Beach volley on the island has recently gained popularity.

Other sports

Futsal and athletics are other sports on the island. Athletics are competed at the

Estádio Municipal do Porto Novo Estádio Municipal do Porto Novo is a multi-purpose stadium in Porto Novo, Cape Verde just about a l=kilometer west of the city center on the road connecting Porto Novo and places west of the island including Norte, Cape Verde, Norte and Tarrafal ...

and is the only athletic complex on the island.

Sporting events

Numerous National Championship finals took place several times at

for some times, its recent was in 2016.

Stadium and arenas

Smaller sports complexes

:¹Home field, but only used for training :²Only used as a training ground

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sports in Santo Antão, Cape Verde