Easter Holiday 2024. Danny and Sam visited Porto in February, I visited the capital, Lisbon, in April with Steve, Philippe and Nicolas. I had my free week during a school holiday and as the boys work in education, I made the best of it. We chose Portugal for its convenience and our hope for fair weather. It wasn’t our first time in Lisbon, but my last visit dated from 2004. Twenty years is a long time. We had three full days.
We travelled wit a football fan. Imagine that! Nicolas loves football (soccer) and he wanted to visit a stadium. Lisbon has two major clubs: Sport Lisboa e Benfica, more commonly known as just Benfica and Sporting Clube de Portugal, which outside Portugal is often referred to as Sporting Lisbon.
Nicolas chose Benfica over Sporting. As he didn’t want to go alone, I said I would accompany him. I don’t follow football, except for World Cups and European Championship, but I liked the idea of doing ‘something else’ and it would result in a, this, blog post. The stadium tour is also the only ‘inside’ activity we did in Lisbon, as we entered no (paid) museum or monastery.
I did know of Benfica beforehand, as it was the football home of goalie Michel Preud’homme between 1994 and 1999 and Jan Vertonghen between 2020 and 2022. Both played many interlands for Belgium‘s Red Devils.
Benfica
Founded on 28 February 1904 as Sport Lisboa, Benfica is one of the ‘Big Three’ clubs in Portugal that have never been relegated from Primeira Liga, along with rivals Sporting CP and FC Porto. Benfica are nicknamed As Águias (The Eagles), for the symbol atop the club’s crest, and Os Encarnados (The Reds), for the shirt colour.
Since 2003, their home ground has been the Estádio da Luz, which replaced the larger, original one, built in 1954. Benfica is the most supported Portuguese club and the European club with the highest percentage of supporters in its own country, having an estimated 14 million supporters worldwide and over 250,000 members, making them the largest sports club by membership in Portugal and second largest in the world.
The club’s anthem, ‘Ser Benfiquista“, refers to Benfica supporters, who are called benfiquistas. ‘E pluribus unum‘ (‘Out of many, one’) is the club’s motto and Águia Vitória is the mascot.
With 86 major trophies won, Benfica is the most decorated club in Portugal. They have won 83 domestic trophies: a record 38 Primeira Liga titles, a record 26 Taça de Portugal, a record 7 Taça da Liga, 9 Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira and 3 Campeonato de Portugal.
Internationally, they won the Latin Cup in 1950 and back-to-back European Cups in 1961 and 1962 – both unique feats in Portuguese football – and were runners-up at the Intercontinental Cup in 1961 and ’62, at the European Cup in 1963, ’65, ’68, ’88 and ’90, and at the UEFA Europa League (formerly the UEFA Cup) in 1983, 2013 and ’14.
Benfica’s ten European finals are a domestic record and ranked seventh all-time among UEFA clubs in 2014. Non-competitively, Benfica is honoured with the Portuguese Orders of Christ (Commander), of Merit (Officer), and of Prince Henry.
In UEFA, Benfica is 8th in the all-time club ranking and was 17th in the club coefficient rankings at the end of the 2022–23 season.
In the UEFA Champions League (formerly the European Cup), Benfica have the second most participations (42) and are the Portuguese club with the most wins (130).
In this tournament, they hold the overall record for the biggest aggregate win, achieved in 1965–66. Moreover, Benfica hold the European record for the most consecutive wins in domestic league (29), where they became the first undefeated champions, in 1972–73.
So, needless to say it’s a big name in football.
Stadium of Light
The Estádio da Luz, officially named Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica, is a multi-purpose stadium located in the Benfica part of Lisbon. It is used mostly for association football matches.
Opened on 25 October 2003 with an exhibition match between Benfica and Club Nacional de Football from Uruguay, it replaced the original Estádio da Luz, which had 120,000 seats. The seating capacity of the new stadium is currently set at 64,642.
The stadium was designed by HOK Sport Venue Event and had a construction cost of €162 million, which isn’t that much for such a venue.
A UEFA category four stadium and one of the biggest stadiums by capacity in Europe (the biggest in Portugal), Estádio da Luz hosted several matches of the UEFA Euro 2004, including its final, as well as the 2014 and 2020 finals of the UEFA Champions League. It was elected the most beautiful stadium of Europe in a 2014 online poll by L’Équipe.
The stadium is one of the potential venues for the 2030 FIFA World Cup, which Portugal will co-host along with Morocco and Spain.
A stadium tour
A day before our visit, Nicolas booked us an audioguided tour for 10 AM. This would be the least disruptive time slot for our day.
Nicolas booked the tickets on Headout Bookings. Coincidence or not, but his credit card was hacked afterwards and illegitimate payments were made. So perhaps buy your ticket at the stadium.
First we presented ourself at the fan / souvenir shop. They told us to get to Gate 17. We needed to redeem our ticket but it was unclear how. A few guides helped us. They let us through and would bring us our tickets later.
It turned out to be a human-guided tour. We received a scarf and joined the rest of the large group.
Shortly after the tour started, tour guide João introduced himself briefly and laid down the rules: stick together and be quiet when he speaks. Strict. But he was alone to guide thirty, maybe fifty people.
The includes:
- Your typical posing in front of a green screen.
- Model of the current stadium.
- Model of the old stadium.
- Walking on the rim of the stadium and photo opportunity.
- Model of the training facilities some 30 km outside Lisbon.
- Entrance gate 1, with the large concrete eagle. A gift from orther Portuguese clubs for 50 years of Benfica.
- The visitors’ locker room. You don’t get to see the home players’ locker room, which features a sauna and hot tub. One can only fantasize.
- The press conference room.
- The pitch itself. You’re not allowed to step on the natura grass. The visitors’ fans are seperated with a net so they can’t through objects onto the field.
- The eagles eating chicks.
- An eagle flying.
- Exit through the gift shop. The ticket gives you 10% off.
For 13 euros, this is an elaborate tour. This makes the tour affordable for Portuguese people, whose incomes are lower than ours.
So?
I found the stadium tour interesting and for me novel. I liked the behind the scenes of a football match.
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