“Christmas, as the saying goes, comes but once a year. Yet for fans of European football, the festive period is something of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, your friends and family can rejoice at the presence of a fully functioning, undistracted human being. On the other, well, there’s no football. This past Monday saw the curtain come down on what’s been a memorable 2010 for football in Portugal: Benfica rolling back the years, the end of the Queiroz era, and a new season that has been as polarising as ever.” In Bed With Maradona

Lower leagues across the globe #1: Portugal
“The geography, languages and footballing cultures might be different, but with the increasing globalisation of football, the problems afflicting lower-league clubs across the world are (depressingly) familiar. Portugal has not escaped this homogenisation. Whilst the três grandes of Benfica, Sporting Clube and FC Porto have exerted a vicelike grip over the silverware since the nationalisation of the Liga in 1938 (previous championships were regionalised, with Lisbon being the most prestigious); smaller clubs have laboured under the financially strafing conditions that a long-term lack of success brings – a state of affairs which has not improved as the level of financial investment in the game has grown.” The Seventy Two