Football

In Cape Verde football is the most popular sport and one of the most loved by Cape Verdeans. Practically all Cape Verdeans are fans of some European team. With these teams as the main reference and model, it is very common to find football teams with the same name and equipment as European teams in some islands of the country. It was first introduced in the country around 1910 first on the island of St. Vincent, later moved to the island of Santiago, then Sal.

Sport Sal Rei is the best known and oldest sports club on the island of Boa Vista, founded on 28 August 1951, won the first regional championship in 1994 and the first and only national championship in 2004. It has a total of 11 regional titles, 5 cups 3 supercups and 1 opening tournament. The equipment is similar in everything to that of Sport Lisboa Benfica, by the initiative of a Portuguese citizen.

The Boavista Regional Championship is managed by the Regional Football Association. It is one of the main championships in the country and there are eight participating clubs. The Regional Championship was established after independence in 1978, with an Academic club winning its first title.

Boavista’s academy is the club with the most title in the regional championship, 18 in total and the second is Sport Sal-Rei Club with 11 and followed by Sporting da Boavista and Eleven Stars. The participating clubs are:

• Academic and Worker Association
• Africa Show
• Sportive Estancia de Baixo
• Northern Youth
• Eleven Stars
• Sal-Rei FC
• Sanjoanense
• Sporting

At National level, CS Mindelense based on the name of the capital of the island of São Vicente, is the oldest club in Cape Verde founded in 1919 and became an official member on May 25, 1922, football was played for the first time, the second oldest is Ilha de Santiago first football club called Sporting Clube da Praia, later FC Derby founded on August 5, 1929, was founded, two years later in the same city, Vitoria FC was founded, two of the clubs were the first name of a Portuguese club.

The official competition did not start until 1938 and Mindelense was the first club to win a regional title, the colonial title was then official. At the same time, the third island to have a football club was Sal, where SC Santa Maria was founded in the island’s capital, then later, in 1952, the fourth island to have a club would be Boa Vista with Esporte Sal Rei Clube.