S.L. BenficaSport Lisboa e Benfica (Portuguese pronunciation: Euronext: SLBEN), also Benfica Lisbon or simply Benfica, is a multi-sports club based in Lisbon, Portugal. Although they compete in a number of different sports, Benfica is mainly known for its association football team. Historically, Benfica has been one of the most successful football clubs in Portugal and Europe and is one of the Três Grandes, or Big Three, football clubs in Portugal, with Futebol Clube do Porto and Sporting Clube de Portugal being the other two clubs, Benfica's two biggest rivals.
Benfica was one of the founding members of the Portuguese Liga in 1933, and, together with Porto and Sporting, they have never been relegated from the First Division (Portuguese: Primeira Divisão) of Portuguese football.On 28 February 1904, Sport Lisboa e Benfica (originally known as Grupo Sport Lisboa, English: Lisbon Sport Group) 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, one of the most popular and successful football clubs in Portugal was created, as well as one of the most internationally recognized football clubs in the world.
Domestically, Benfica has won a total of 32 Portuguese Liga titles, 24 Portuguese Cup (Taça de Portugal, Portugal Millennium Cup) titles, two Portuguese League Cup (Taça da Liga, Carlsberg Cup) titles, and four Portuguese SuperCups (Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira) titles. Internationally, Benfica has won two European Cup (currently UEFA Champions League) titles, one Latin Cup title, and one Iberian Cup title. In addition, the football club has seven UEFA Champions League finals appearances and one UEFA Cup (currently UEFA Europa League) finals appearance.
As a multiple sport club, Benfica has departments for basketball, roller hockey, indoor football (known as futsal), volleyball, handball, 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 os 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, Japan, Luxembourg, Macao, 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 9 November 2006, Benfica was acknowledged by Guinness World Records as having the largest number of paying club members (known as Portuguese: sócios) in the world, with 160,398 paid members.
On 30 September 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. As of 23 June 2010, Benfica has a reported 218,216 paid club members.
Source : WIkipedia.com
