The Taça de Portugal (; ) is an annual
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
competition and the premier
knockout tournament in
Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Generali Tranquilidade since the 2024–25 season. Organised by the
Portuguese Football Federation since it was first held in 1938, the competition is open to professional and amateur clubs from the
top-four league divisions. Matches are played from August–September to May–June, and the final is traditionally held at the
Estádio Nacional in
Oeiras, near Lisbon.
The cup winners qualify for the
Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (or the runners-up, in case the winners are also the league champions) and the
UEFA Europa League
The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...
. The Europa League berth is passed down the contemporaneous
Primeira Liga table if the cup winner had already qualified for the
UEFA Champions League.
Before 1938, a similar competition was held since 1922 under the name Campeonato de Portugal (), which determined the national champions from among the different regional championship winners. The establishment of the
Primeira Liga, a nationwide
league-based competition, as the official domestic championship in 1938, led to the conversion of the Campeonato de Portugal into the main domestic cup competition, under its current designation. The trophy awarded to the Portuguese Cup winners is the same that was awarded to the Campeonato de Portugal winners, although titles in each competition are counted separately.
The first winners of the Taça de Portugal were
Académica, who defeated
Benfica 4–3 in the
1939 final. Benfica are the most successful team in the competition, with 26 trophies in 39 final appearances.
Sporting CP are the current holders, after beating
Benfica 3–1 in the
2025 final to secure their 18th title in the competition.
History

The first incarnation of ''a'' Portuguese Cup began in 1912, as an invitational tournament organized by SC Império; it was named after the organizing club, as "Taça do Império" (not to be confused with a similarly named, but unrelated, ''Taça Império'' - the one-off trophy for the inaugural match at the
National Stadium on 10 June 1944). Because of its closed format, with very few clubs taking part, the Portuguese Federation does not recognise it as a true "national cup"; it ended in 1918.
The inaugural season of the "Campeonato de Portugal" (''Championship of Portugal'') took place in 1921–22, and this competition was played every season until 1937–38. The original format had all the clubs participating in regional leagues, with the regional winners progressing to knock-out rounds, and the ultimate victors named ''Champions of Portugal''. This was the primary tournament in Portugal, until the creation of the round-robin competition in 1934-35 - in fact, the ''Champions'' moniker of this early period can be misleading, as the modern concept of "champion" applies to the league champion (i.e., for statistical purposes, the winners of this ''Campeonato de Portugal'' are no longer counted among Portuguese ''League'' champions). The short period of coexistence between two championships meant considerable confusion, and was pointed as a reason for lack of competitiveness in contemporary international matches - therefore, a revamp was bound to happen.
The success of the older competition meant it was carried over after the reorganization of Football competitions in 1938–39, albeit losing its top status: the (round-robin)
league carried the name ''Campeonato'' (or, in its longform, "Campeonato Nacional da Primeira Divisão"), and the old Campeonato de Portugal was renamed "Taça de Portugal" (''Portuguese Cup'') for the 1938–39 season. The Cup soon became the second-most important trophy in Portuguese football.
The Cup is organised by the
Portuguese Football Federation (''Federação Portuguesa de Futebol'') and is played by all teams in the
Primeira Liga,
Segunda Liga,
Liga 3 and
Campeonato de Portugal, by the 20 District Championship runners-up and by the 20 District Cup winners. Some extra teams from the District Championships might be invited in order to fill necessary spots. Reserve teams aren't allowed to enter the competition.
Format
As of the 2023–24 season, the cup is composed of 8 rounds (final included), with 1st level clubs joining at the 3rd round, the 2nd level clubs joining at the 2nd round and the 3rd and lower-level clubs competing from the beginning. All rounds are played in a single game, except for the semifinals, which are played over two legs (home and away).
Final venues
The final match has been played at the
Estádio Nacional near
Lisbon
Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...
in
Jamor every season since 1946, except in 1961 (in a rare occurrence,
Estádio das Antas was chosen as a more convenient venue for both
Leixões and
FC Porto, despite being the home of the latter; an agreement was reached by both teams due to geographical proximity and capacity); in the three years following the
Carnation Revolution; in the 1982–83 season, due to FC Porto's pressure. In the years following the Carnation Revolution, the venue for the final match would be the home ground of the team that had won the Portuguese Cup the previous year; however, when
Boavista won the Cup twice in a row, its home ground (
Estádio do Bessa) was deemed too small and the matches were instead played in
Estádio das Antas (FC Porto's former home ground).
Finals
Campeonato de Portugal (1922–1938)
Performance by club
Taça de Portugal (1938–present)
Performance by club
See also
*
List of association football competitions in Portugal
*
List of Taça de Portugal winning managers
Notes
References
Further reading
*
External links
List of Taça de Portugal winnersCompetition pageat
UEFA
The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...
List of winnersat
RSSSF
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taca de Portugal
Football cup competitions in Portugal
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...