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Sport Lisboa e Benfica (-ptspɔɾ liʒˈboɐ i bɐ̃ȷ̃ˈfikɐ; Euronext - SLBEN), commonly known as simply Benfica or occasionally as Benfica Lisbon, is a Portuguese multi-sports club based in Lisbon. Although they successfully compete in a number of different sports, Benfica is mostly known for its association football team. Founded in Lisbon in September 28, 1904, it is one of the "Três Grandes" (Big Three, in English), football clubs in Portugal, with Futebol Clube do Porto and Sporting Clube de Portugal being the other two clubs, Benfica's biggest rivals. Benfica has more than 14 million fans and the Guinness World Record for the football club in the world with most members. Benfica's supporters are often called "Benfiquistas". Benfica was elected by the IFFHS as the 9th most successful European club of the 20th century. It is the second most successful Portuguese football club with 68 trophies (right behind FC Porto, which has 69). In national competitions, however, it is the best, with 66. Benfica was one of the founding members of the Primeira Liga in 1933, and, together with Porto and Sporting, it has never been relegated from the First Division (Primeira Divisão, in Portuguese) of Portuguese football. On February 28, 1904, Sport Lisboa e Benfica (originally known as Grupo Sport Lisboa, ) was founded during a meeting in the southwest part of Lisbon involving 24 young men, led by Cosme Damião. As a result of this meeting, the most popular and successful Portuguese football club in domestic competitions was created. Domestically, Benfica won a total of 32 Portuguese Liga titles, 27 Championship of Portugal/Portuguese Cup titles, 3 Portuguese League Cup titles and 4 Portuguese SuperCup titles. Benfica has the distinction of being one of only two teams in the history of the Portuguese Liga to have completed an entire 30 game season (1972 � 73) unbeaten (the other being F.C. Porto in the 2010 � 11 season) Internationally, Benfica won the 1960 � 61 European Cup and the 1961 � 62 European Cup. In addition, Benfica was runners-up in the 1961 Intercontinental Cup, in the 1962 Intercontinental Cup, in the 1962 � 63 European Cup, in the 1964 � 65 European Cup, in the 1967 � 68 European Cup, in the 1982-83 UEFA Cup, in the 1987 � 88 European Cup and in the 1989 � 90 European Cup. This means that, internationally, Benfica is the second most rewarded club (with 2 European trophies), behind F.C. Porto (with 7 trophies, 2 of which international) and right ahead of Sporting CP (with 1 European trophy). As a multiple sport club, Benfica has departments for basketball, roller hockey, indoor football (known as futsal), volleyball, handball, beach soccer, water polo, rugby, and cycling, among others. Due to the success and popularity of the football club, Benfica has built the biggest fan base among the "Três Grandes" (Benfica, Porto and Sporting) in Portugal. Benfica also has one of the biggest fan bases in the world, with many supporters outside of Portugal in countries like Andorra, Angola, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Cape Verde, France, Germany, Guinea-Bissau, United Kingdom, Japan, Luxembourg, Macau, Mexico, Switzerland, and United States. Currently, Benfica has the largest number of supporters worldwide for a Portuguese club, with a total number of around 14 million. On November 9, 2006, Benfica was acknowledged by Guinness World Records as having the largest number of paying club members (known as sócios, in Portuguese) in the world, with 160,398 paid members. On September 30, 2009, Benfica announced that it had reached the 200,000 mark for paid club members. In May, 2004, Benfica launched an aggressive marketing campaign known as kit sócio (membership kit) to increase its paid club membership from 94,714 to 200,000. As a result, five years later, Benfica was able to add more than 105,000 new paid club members to their existing membership of 94,714, which more than doubled their total paid club membership. Benfica currently remains the leader of international football clubs with the largest number of paying club members worldwide. |