by Portuguese Soccer News
A New Era of Portuguese Football Excellence
Welcome to the 93rd season of the Portuguese League, officially running from August 7, 2026, to May 16, 2027. This year introduces a major shift to the domestic calendar. Instead of three disruptive autumn breaks, the league will implement a consolidated structural change featuring one single two-week international window and one single-week gap.
The League Setup
The 93rd edition of the Portuguese League features 18 teams battling through a demanding calendar. FC Porto are the defending League Champions, having captured their 31st title. Maritimo was promoted and is back in the first division since 2022-23 along with Academico Viseu who last appeared in the top flight in 1988-89. While Tondela and AVS were relegated to division two. The summer transfer window runs unusually long until September 15, 2026, giving clubs ample time to finalize squads.
Domestic Cups: Super Cup, Taca de Portugal & League Cup
The historic Taca de Portugal offers traditional knockout drama for clubs across the nation’s divisions. Torreense are the title holders. Meanwhile, the League Cup enters its second year of a heavily modified, exclusive format. The group stage remains discarded, starting directly at the quarter-finals with just eight participants, the top six Portuguese League finishers and the top two from the second division from the 2025-26 season. Sporting are last seasons title winners. The season opening Super Cup kicks off the league season and takes place August 1, 2026 with FC Porto facing Torreense. Benfica opened last season capturing the Super Cup.
European competitions and Global TV
Portugal will have five clubs participating in Europe this season with FC Porto and Sporting in the Champions League, Torreense and Benfica commencing off in the Europa League and Braga entered in the Conference League.
The international sports marketing agency Sportfive holds the exclusive distribution rights for the Portuguese League’s international media broadcasts through the 2027–28 season. They manage and sell the TV packages to global regional broadcasters and made a big announcement a few weeks back that all Portuguese League games will be shown in the USA this season on Bein Sports who also have broadcast rights for the games in France. Canada will also have select games on Bein Sports.
In Germany, Austria and Switzerland the games are shown on Sportdigital Fussball. ESPN/Disney+ have the rights in Brazil. African countries, Angola, Cape Verde and Mozambique, will show games on ZAP. While Arena Sport 1 has made a deal in Slovakia, Sport 1/2 in Hungary, Bold+ in Denmark and VG+ in Norway. Q Arena has the rights in Armenia, Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Belarus and Uzbekistan. DAZN has rights in Italy, Japan and Belgium. Look for more broadcasting deals to be announced over the next couple of weeks.
Benfica TV will show Benfica home games internationally to countries that carry the channel.