These notes are to help those who would like to
watch a live game while visiting the Algarve. I have been to many
of the grounds myself.
Page updated 8th June
2026 - will be updated in July with more details of season
2026 - 2027
This is the Portuguese football set-up in
descending order for season 2026 - 2027. National Leagues consist
of four tiers. Fifth and lower tiers, where they exist, are the
regional leagues. Promotion and relegation operates between all
tiers.
This English language website http://www.portugoal.net/
covers the top level and national team.
Another good website, with areas in English and
several other languages, is www.zerozero.pt
which, among a lot of information has results, league tables and
fixtures for all levels of the game in Portugal.
There is only one website specifically for
Algarve football, the official Algarve FA website www.afalgarve.pt in
Portuguese only, but easy enough to navigate and make sense of.
In Portugal, there is little or no recreational
or 'park' football as we know it in the UK. Most organised
football is played on enclosed grounds with 'proper' referees and
linesmen. There are also national and regional set-ups for U-19
etc type football. There are some unofficial veterans leagues.
You will be pleased to hear that admission charges are a lot less than in the UK for the comparable level of football. Tickets are usually available apart from, for example, Benfica v Sporting or Benfica v Porto. In some top level grounds and all those below that level you can pay on the day.
Very few games are usually scheduled over the
weekend between the Christmas and New Year Holidays, or over the
two weekends at all if those holidays fall on a Friday, Saturday
or Sunday. At Easter there are usually no matches on Easter
Sunday, they are mostly played on the Saturday instead. Minor
leagues do not have games at Easter.
There is virtually no midweek football (ie Tuesday or Wednesday) anywhere in Portugal below the top two Divisions.
Would you like a football tour to the
Algarve? Algarve Football Tours can organise games at any level,
from full professional down to veterans and school-aged teams.
The company deals with top level and
semi-professional teams from Germany, Sweden, Norway etc during
their winter break and also arranges pre-season training matches
for top British and other clubs. Matches can be arranged against
suitable local opposition and also on a tournament basis between
visiting teams. Qualified referees are arranged for all matches
and those at higher level will be provided with appropriate people
from the Portuguese or Algarve Football Association lists.
Semi - professional clubs can also have suitable
matches arranged pre-season against local opposition. All matches
at such levels require official sanctions from the relevant
Football Associations. 
For those at the lower levels of the game, we
can organise end of season and pre- season tour games against
local teams of ex-pats, short end-of-season tournaments between
visiting teams, also trips for school age teams during the winter
and Easter holidays. Intending school aged teams should be
aware that most weekday matches would be played in the evenings on
3G pitches under floodlights. We ensure that age appropriate match
arrangements are in place.
It is not easy to organise anything in July and
August as it is too hot. The local football season, apart from the
top two divisions, ends in mid-May and resumes in late
September. Veteran's and school aged games are normally good
until the end of June.
Algarve Football Tours will make all the
arrangements necessary to make your trip a successful event -
except booking flights and the essential insurance! Hotels,
transport to and from matches, training venues (if required) and
other off the field and non football activities can be organised
Click the logo below to visit our website for
more information, testimonials and contact details.
As Women’s football gathers momentum and
popularity, we are delighted to offer Portugal as a great
destination for Women’s Football Tours offering bespoke packages
including matches or tournaments. Throughout Portugal we have
women's/girls teams providing ideal opposition for all levels,
amateur to Semi Professional. Selected hotels offer full training
facilities for the more serious, or we can create a tailor made
package based in a lively resort to make a perfect football
holiday.
We can create a tailor made package for your women’s and girl's
football teams with hotels/accommodation to suit your
requirements, training facilities and those all important matches
or tournaments. In the Algarve, Lisbon or Porto we have
great conditions, venues and opposition choices to be sure your
team has a great football experience in Portugal.
If your prefer your tour to be a more sociable event, you can be
based in one of the Algarve’s lively resorts, to enjoy beautiful
beaches, good restaurants and nightlife based around your
football.
Women's Futsal tours with
matches and tournaments can also be arranged. 
Futsal in Europe has a long history in the sport and Portugal is
host some of the best players and teams. Take the chance to test
your skills on the European stage. Our package of accommodation,
training facilities and matches all set in a lively resort means
you and your team can enjoy a great tour in the Algarve.
Please click here to make an enquiry for more
information about football trips for women. See also http://futebolfemininoportugal.com/
Strictly for the over 50's, we are now able to help you with
visits and competitions for walking football teams. There are a
growing number of active walking football teams in the Algarve.
Contact us if you would like a one-off game or perhaps we
can organise a small tournament. A large scale tournament
involving 44 teams took place on 20th and 21st April 2026 at the
stadium of Ferreiras FC, near Albufeira. NEXT year's main event
will be held at the same venue in mid-April 2027. This is
expected to be fully subscribed. If you are interested, make
contact without delay. Additional, smaller, tournaments may be
held at other times.
The first Women only tournament was held in March 2024 and was a
great success. For women, the age brackets are 40+ and 55+. Make
contact early if you are interested - same as above for the men's.
Plans for 2026 are now finalised, with a tournament to be held in
October 2026. Only a few vacancies remain.
This website will be of interest to visitors - https://walkingfootballalgarve.com/
not connected with us, this is the site of the East Algarve
Walking Football club.
This map shows the various grounds used by the professional and
semi-professional clubs based in the Algarve. Zoom in to see a
more precise location, click the marker to see who plays there.
Many towns have no active senior football clubs, hence the big
gaps in the map! The two marked in red are those of Portimonense
and Farense, the two top level teams of the Algarve who currently
play in second division - Liga Meu Super.Those marked in yellow
are, so far as I know, used only by junior age group teams. For
interest I have marked, in grey, some of the grounds I know and
that are now not used by anyone. Click the square on the
right hand side of the box to open the map.
Season 2026 - 2027 will begin over the weekend of 8 / 9 August and will end on the weekend of 15 / 16 May, followed by promotion / relegation playoffs.
There are no Algarve teams at this level. FC
Porto won the league, six points ahead of Sporting and eight ahead
of Benfica. Braga finished a distant fourth.
Fixtures on the official website in English is https://www.ligaportugal.pt/en/homepage/
All games are
shown live on TV and are scheduled for television purposes. They
can be played over Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday evenings.
Very rarely does a team play at 3.30pm /1530 hrs on a Sunday
afternoon, the 'default' time for kickoffs.
Dates and times of matches are confirmed four to
six weeks in advance, except at the end of the season when certain
games are ordered to be played at the same time, sometimes at less
than a week's notice! Fixture dates and times can be found on the
official League website which also has links to the club websites.
The Lisbon based teams of Benfica and Sporting are about 3 to 4 hours drive from the Algarve (depending on where you are) or between 4 and 5 hours overall by bus or train. That includes the time spent in the city getting to the ground. It is impossible to travel to and from their games by train unless staying overnight. If going by coach (bus to non UK readers) you will have a long wait (until 0100) before your return journey! All top flight matches are shown live on TV and are therefore mostly played in the evenings, sometimes kicking off as late as 21.15hrs even on Sundays.
Apart from games involving the 'big three' of
Benfica, Sporting and Porto and the honourable exceptions of Braga
and Guimarães, crowds even in the top division of Portugal´s
national league often number less than 5,000. The latest
statistics show that only those five teams have average crowds in
excess of 10,000.
Games are played at any time over a weekend, including the highly unpopular 11:00am starts demanded by TV on Saturday or Sunday mornings.
Both Algarve
teams were involved in the fight to avoid relegation to Liga
3. For the third season running, Portimonense avoided
relegation with a last match win. Farense won their promotion /
relegation layoff matches against Belenenses. The Algarve will
therefore have the same two teams next season in Liga 2.
Farense
play in the renovated city centre São Luis stadium, which has a
present capacity of about 6,400 Average attendance this past
season was 2006.
The São Luis stadium is located in a mainly
residential area on the north side of the city near the large
hospital, about 15 minutes walk from the railway and bus stations.
Those familiar with many UK grounds will see it as 'traditional'
i.e it is not miles out of town and only accessible by car, nor is
there a running track to spoil the view. There is no cover from
the elements on the non-members side of the stadium. Parking is
very limited, avoid driving there if you can. Official website https://www.scfarense.pt/modalidades/futebol
Portimonense
(the team based in Portimão) play in the Liga Meu Super, the
second division. This season they finished 15th of 18 teams and
just avoided relegation.
They play in Portimão's city centre municipal
stadium, a short walk from buses and trains. It is an 'old
fashioned' ground in that there are steep terraces close to the
pitch and no running track etc around it. To be honest it would
barely pass muster in the UK National League (5th tier) let alone
the second division of a national competition. Spectator
facilities are minimal, there are few toilets, one portable bar on
the non-members side, no match day programmes etc.
Their website is www.portimonense.pt
- it is only in Portuguese. The stadium holds about 5,500. If it's
looking like rain, be aware that the entire stadium, apart from
the executive area, has no roof cover. Average attendancer this
past season is 1160. Only 548 turned up atone home game, crowds
were below 1,000 towards the end of the season, until the last
game when they let people in free and 3656 turned out.
Note for visitors - children under 6 years old are not allowed in. The price of tickets will be €10 - 15 in non-members areas. Tickets are not sold on websites etc except for the big games. Ticket office in Rua Pé da Cruz (opposite blocks of flats painted yellow and green) opens two hours before kick-off. There are cafés and bars in the surrounding area in which to wait. The normal entrance for non-members is Gate 6, located around the corner in Avenida Zeca Afonso. There is almost nothing inside the ground in the way of spectator amenities before the game starts.
There is a fairly large free car park outside, which does get full as it also serves two large apartment blocks. There are other places to park nearby. For those coming by bus, the ground is 4 minutes walk from the main bus stop area on Avenida Guanaré. The railway station is about 15 minutes walk. However some games are played at times not allowing journeys home by train or bus.Official website for fixtures and results in
English is https://www.ligaportugal.pt/en/homepage/
The Portuguese FA Cup is open to all
teams in the National setup, including those in Madeira and the
Azores. Almost all games are played at the weekend. The leagues
mostly consist of between 12 and 16 teams, thus creating plenty of
spare dates. The only regional teams allowed to enter are,
generally, the league's second and perhaps third placed teams,
plus the regional cup winners. The fixtures can be found at www.zerozero.pt
but kickoff times are harder to find and will have to be checked
locally or at the Portugal FA website www.fpf.pt
The first round of the 2026 - 2027 FA Cup
competition will be over the weekend of 29th and 30th August.
Teams in the lower leagues start their campaign. The Final will be
on 30th May.
The League Cup (Taça Allianz) is now, in
effect, by invitation only, to the top six of the Liga Betclic,
plus the two teams who finished top of the Segunda Liga. So our
local teams are not involved.
Portimonense B and Moncarapachense were relegated
back to the Algarve League after their last game on 18th April. Lagoa finished 7th and will
stay at the same level for next season. They will be joined by Imortal Albufeira, who won the
Algarve Legue.
Matches are normally played on Sunday afternoons at 3pm / 1500hrs
but later in August, April, May and June.
The Algarve
League First Division runs from the last weekend of September
until the last weekend of May,
The season is played in two phases. In the
first phase, each of the twelve clubs play the others twice, home
and away, thus 22 games. That ends in mid-March. The second phase,
in two groups for promotion and relegation, runs until the last
weekend of May.
Official website only in Portuguese www.afalgarve.pt
Admission (adult) is €5 at most grounds (some
are €7,50) and cash only
so far as I know.
This Algarve League a semi-professional league,
roughly the equivalent of a good English county FA league. Matches
are normally played on Saturday afternoons, although some games
are at different times because of ground sharing. In May and June,
games will be kicking off normally at 1700hrs / 5pm. Note
that there will be NO matches between Christmas and New Year, nor
over the Easter weekend.
The Algarve FA website usually publishes changes
to the fixture lists with confirmed kick-off times on the MONDAY
prior to the weekend concerned. The local press does not usually
list kick-off times in their information.
A problem is that kick-off times and even match
dates may be altered with as little as a week's warning. It is
difficult therefore to keep up to date as few of the clubs have an
official website and the FA website does not highlight any
changes. So if I forget to look...
Fixtures (with kick-off times) will be seen here
Reminder that ko times for more than 2 or 3 weeks ahead should be
checked again as they are subject to change.
Moncarapachense and Portimonense B were
relegated from the Campeonato de Portugal back into the Algarve
League.
Portimonense B play at the small Éstadio Dois Irmãos, about 1.8km (a little over a mile) to the south of the town centre not far from Praia da Rocha. It's pretty well inaccessible by bus at the weekend.
Lagos play in an open air stadium (no cover at all for spectators!) just outside the town centre, about 10 minutes walk from the bus and railway stations.
Olhanense - were relegated from the national leagues a few years ago and have since folded and re-formed. Their stadium, Estádio José Arcanjo, is close to the town centre, about 10 minutes walk from railway and bus stations. Parking is available nearby for those who drive. Unofficial website only in Portuguese is http://www.olhanense.net/
Quarteirense stadium, is a bleak all-purpose municipal facility on the border between Vilamoura and Quarteira. The tall floodlights can be see from afar. Quarteirense are now using the small pitch next to the main stadium. The entrance is round by the swimming pool. It is dire. It's only 6 or 7 minutes walk from the McDonald's in Vilamoura. The very infrequent weekend buses from and back to Albufeira call at a stop about 5 minutes walk away. Map here.
Other teams in next season's first division will
be (probably) Louletano B, Odiáxere, FC Os 11 Esperanças (Faro),
Silves and promoted from the Second Division Carvoeiro United (who
play in Estombar) and Lusitano Vila Real de Santo António.
The Algarve Cup is the regional cup
competition and most teams enter, including those in the national
Leagues. Matches are usually played midweek, often at very short
notice.
The 2025 - 2026 final was played at Portimão on
Thursday 4th June, Olhanense emerging 1 - 0 winners over Imortal
Albufeira.
Many bars in the Algarve, especially those run
by British people, have access to UK sports channels via 'illegal'
internet streams. In the Algarve you will almost always be able to
find somewhere showing English football. Some bars will also show
Scottish games, but you may have to look a little harder!
If you are coming to the Albufeira area and need
to know a good bar in which to watch a game near where you are
staying, go to www.albufeira.com/forum and ask there for a
recommendation. Registration required. Or you can ask locally.
Portugal's DAZN Eleven subscription channels
show English Premier League matches each weekend and during
midweek, including the 3pm Saturday matches not available to UK
viewers. English language commentary may not be available. Another
subscription service, SportTV, shows Championship, FA Cup and
League Cup matches. Very occasionally there will be a match on
free to air channels, particularly if a Portuguese team is playing
in Europe.
DAZN Portugal also show Spanish La Liga games.
Many bars in tourist areas (ie the Algarve) have
access to other broadcast streams, including Irish channels, South
African, US and Canadian channels, which show many English Premier
League games with English commentary. You can find bars showing
three or four games at the same time on a Saturday afternoon.
Portugal's SportTV (subscription channel) also
shows live US Major League, Dutch, Italian, French, German and
other games fairly regularly. You may also get Brazilian games
late at night.
If you have a car while you are here, you might
be able to get over to Huelva or Seville. Seville play in the
Spanish First Division (La Liga) of course as do the other team in
Seville, Real Betis.
You can get fixtures from an English Language website at www.soccer-spain.com; which also has information about kickoff times and ticket sales generally. Beware that in Spain, many games are re-scheduled for TV purposes only a few days in advance of the weekend concerned. Tickets are therefore not normally available until a few days beforehand. Some games kick off as late as 10.15pm / 22.15hrs
The city of Seville is easily accessible from
the Algarve by car, but there are no trains and by bus it is
fairly hard work with few buses running in winter. A trip out and
back after a game in one day is almost impossible! Click here for public transport
information Algarve - Seville.
The local team just across the border in Huelva, called Recreativo, play in the Segunda Federacíon, in effect the regionalised fourth division. Their website is https://recreativohuelva.com/ and they are the oldest football club in Spain it says. League website is https://rfef.es/es/competiciones/segunda-federacion
Very little women's 11-a-side football in played in the Algarve. The whole Algarve Region recently has had just three active senior teams, those of Guia FC, Ferreiras FC and SC Olhanense, who first formed a women's team for season 2024 - 2025.
The season for the women starts early in September and ends in
May, the exact date depending on success or otherwise in various
playoffs. It does seem that Saturday afternoons is the preferred
time for matches, but always check. I list the forthcoming
weekend's games at https://albufeira.com/forum/sports-results-opinions-resultados-desportivos-e-opinies_forum24.html
each Monday or Tuesday.
Guia FC play in the national Second Division South, which is
played in two phases. The second phase has ended. Guia finished
fifth and may be relegated to the Third Division.
The fourth division, in which Ferreiras and Olhanense play, ended
on 16th May. Teams do not play every week.This is also played in
various phases and groups. Ferreiras finished third in the
league's southern section failing to qualify for the final
playoffs.. Olhanense failed to qualify for the second phase.
There is also the Women's FA Cup in which all teams compete. Only
Guia made it into the third round. They were knocked out by top
division side Damaiense.
Fixtures can be found at https://www.fpf.pt/pt/ - click
MENU on the top right , then Futebol Feminino then the required
competition.
