The Sorry Tale Of Two Clubs

Belenenses split in two

- Tom Kundert

On September 23, one of Portugal’s most storied football teams will be celebrating its centenary. But instead of commemorating 100 years of existence and a glorious past, Os Belenenses have lurched into an unprecedented crisis with no solution in sight. And it’s a crisis that has, quite literally, split the club in two.

An ugly boardroom battle with increasingly vitriolic overtones resulted in the bizarre situation whereby this season kicked off with two separate incarnations of the team from Lisbon’s chic Belem quarter. One is playing in Portugal’s the sixth tier, attracting crowds of over 5,000 and rocketing towards promotion, the other is in Portugal’s top flight, with no fixed abode and almost no fans, and yet is in with a shout of qualifying for Europe.

Belenenses is a club that was part of the very soul of Portuguese football, one of only two teams outside the traditional Tres Grandes of Benfica, Sporting and Porto to have won the championship, and the club which, apart from those three, has spent the most years in the top division.