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Big Three (Portugal)
 
 
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The Big Three is the nickname of the three most powerful sports clubs in Portugal
Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Located in southwestern Europe, Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east....
. The football
Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players, and is widely considered to be the most popular sport in the world....
 teams of SL Benfica
SL Benfica

Sport Lisboa e Benfica is a multisports club based in Lisbon, Portugal, best known for its football team. Sport Lisboa e Benfica was founded in 1904 by a group of twenty-four men....
, FC Porto and Sporting CP have a great rivalry, and are usually the main contenders for the title. Between them they share all but two of the Portuguese Football Championships ever played and generally end up sharing the top three positions. The only two clubs outside the big three to have won the Portuguese league are Belenenses in the 1945-46 season and Boavista
Boavista

Circuito da Boavista was a Formula One street course in Porto , Portugal used twice for the Portuguese Grand Prix.The course began at the harbor-front "Esplanada do Rio de Janeiro", continued on "Avenida da Boavista" , and then twisted its way through small neighborhoods back to the start-finish line....
 in the 2000-01 season
2000-01 in Portuguese football

The 2000/01 Portuguese football season saw a new champion: Boavista FC became the 5th club ever to win the championship, surprising by securing the title in the 33rd of 34 rounds....
.

In other sports, the rivalry between the Os Três Grandes is also considerable (although currently football and handball are the only team sports where all three clubs field professional teams) and it usually leads to arguments between the fans and players.






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The Big Three is the nickname of the three most powerful sports clubs in Portugal
Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Located in southwestern Europe, Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east....
. The football
Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players, and is widely considered to be the most popular sport in the world....
 teams of SL Benfica
SL Benfica

Sport Lisboa e Benfica is a multisports club based in Lisbon, Portugal, best known for its football team. Sport Lisboa e Benfica was founded in 1904 by a group of twenty-four men....
, FC Porto and Sporting CP have a great rivalry, and are usually the main contenders for the title. Between them they share all but two of the Portuguese Football Championships ever played and generally end up sharing the top three positions. The only two clubs outside the big three to have won the Portuguese league are Belenenses in the 1945-46 season and Boavista
Boavista

Circuito da Boavista was a Formula One street course in Porto , Portugal used twice for the Portuguese Grand Prix.The course began at the harbor-front "Esplanada do Rio de Janeiro", continued on "Avenida da Boavista" , and then twisted its way through small neighborhoods back to the start-finish line....
 in the 2000-01 season
2000-01 in Portuguese football

The 2000/01 Portuguese football season saw a new champion: Boavista FC became the 5th club ever to win the championship, surprising by securing the title in the 33rd of 34 rounds....
.

In other sports, the rivalry between the Os Três Grandes is also considerable (although currently football and handball are the only team sports where all three clubs field professional teams) and it usually leads to arguments between the fans and players. These clubs dominate Portuguese football so completely that it is very rare for anyone to claim to support any other team as their "first club". The general rule in Portugal is that, first and foremost, you support one of the "The Big Three" with your local team coming in second place (or in many cases not coming at all). The big three have the highest average attendance ratings every season in Portugal, but the other teams, lacking support from the locals, have suffered from weak attendances due in part to the big three's monopoly. The lack of support for local teams is considered to be one of the main reasons why Portuguese Football registers one of the worse attendance ratings in European Football's main championships, alongside the price of game tickets, perceived corruption (see Apito Dourado
Apito Dourado

The Apito Dourado affair is a Political corruption sports scandal in Portugal football that first arose in 2004. Portuguese Judiciary Police investigators named several football personalities as suspects of corrupting or attempting to corrupt referees, including Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa, chairman of FC Porto, and the former Boavista FC c...
 scandal) and the showing of too many games in TV.

Benfica is the team with most league titles and cups won but Porto has been the dominating force in the last two decades and a half, while Sporting holds the second most cup titles.