The Big Three () is the nickname of the three most successful and biggest football clubs in Portugal. The teams of S.L. Benfica, Sporting CP, both from Lisbon, and of FC Porto, from Porto, have a great rivalry and are usually the main contenders for the Primeira Liga title.
They share all but two of the Portuguese Football Championships ever played, and generally end up sharing the top three positions. None of them has been relegated from the Primeira Liga either, having been participants in all editions since its first season in 1934âÂÂ35. Benfica's lowest position was 6th out of 18 in 2000âÂÂ01, while Porto's 9th-place finish out of 14 in 1969âÂÂ70 is the closest any of the three sides have come to relegation. Sporting's worst finish was a 7th-place finish out of 16 in 2012âÂÂ13.
Benfica and Porto are the only Portuguese teams to have won the European Cup/UEFA Champions League, which they have both won on two occasions. The closest Sporting came was in 1983, when they reached the quarter-finals.
The only two clubs outside the Big Three to have won the Portuguese league are Belenenses, in the 1945âÂÂ46 season, and Boavista, in the 2000âÂÂ01 campaign. Belenenses has been relegated four times to the second tier, while Boavista has been in the third tier twice, and then, after economic problems, both had to start over in their district leagues (Lisbon and Porto, respectively).
In this trio of rivalry between fans, popular terms and nicknames were created to identify them and their clubs. Benfica fans are known as "benfiquistas" and "encarnados" ("reds"), but their bitter rivals call them "lampiões". Sporting fans, "sportinguistas" and "leões" ("lions"), are called "lagartos" ("lizards"),, while FC Porto supporters, "portistas" or "dragões ("dragons"), are nicknamed "andrades" and "tripeiros", despite the latter nickname also including people from Porto but who are fans of any other club (including Benfica and Sporting CP).
Being the most popular and regular winners of the Primeira Liga, the Big Three have achieved such hegemony that the vast majority of Portuguese fans support one of them, relegating the local team to second place.
Thus, The Big Three have the highest average attendance each season in the Primeira Liga, while the other teams, without the support of the local population, have suffered from poor attendances (with the exception of Vitória de Guimarães, the only other team with an average attendance higher than the Primeira Liga's average attendance), partly due to the monopoly of the Big Three.
The Portuguese press, often accused of failing to fulfil any criteria of equality with the other clubs in the league who are constantly snubbed, is another reason often given for the majority of the Portuguese population to support one of these three teams based in Lisbon and Porto to the detriment of the team based in their own city.
The resulting problem is so serious that despite the good attendances at the Big Three matches, the rest of the stadiums are increasingly empty. During the 2010/11 Primeira Liga season, 30 percent of the matches played had fewer than 2,000 spectators.
Despite everything, the average attendance at Primeira Liga stadiums has been on the rise in the second half of the decade, with increases of more than 7% and 9% in 2015/16 and 2016/17 respectively. This is due to the increase in the average attendance at the D. Afonso Henriques (Vitória de Guimarães), Municipal de Chaves (Chaves), Barreiros (MarÃÂtimo) and Bessa (Boavista) stadiums, in addition to the average attendance increasing by more than 15,000 people at the José Alvalade Stadium (Sporting) between 2011 and 2018.
Data in this graph is from EFS Attendances and since 2009/10 from Liga Portugal.
Benfica vs. Sporting:
Benfica vs. Porto:
Porto vs. Sporting:
Eight footballers have played for Benfica, Porto, and Sporting. Of those, only Eurico Gomes won the domestic league for all three (twice with each club). Additionally, Eurico is also the only player to enter the following list without having played for another club in-between his Big Three career.