Football in Cape Verde

Football is the most popular sport in Cape Verde. The league is divided into eleven divisions, of which seven of them are singles and two islands, Santiago and Santo Antão has two zones since 2000. The football association is a federation which is known as Federação Caboverdiana de Futebol, it became affiliated with CAF in 1986 and later with FIFA in 2001.

Divisions

The divisions numbers eleven on nine islands, seven has an island league and two contains two zones each along with the cup, super cup and opening tournament competitions.

Island leagues

The light blue indicates a league having first and second divisions.

Boa Vista	Brava	Fogo	Maio	Sal	Santiago (North)
Santiago (South)	Santo Antão (Ribeira Grande)	Santo Antão (Porto Novo)	São Nicolau	São Vicente

Regional cups

Boa Vista	Brava	Fogo	Maio	Sal	Santiago (North)
Santiago (South)	Santo Antão (single)	Santo Antão (North)	Santo Antão (Porto Novo)	São Nicolau	São Vicente

Regional super cups

Boa Vista	Brava	Fogo	Maio	Sal	Santiago (North)
Santiago (South)	Santo Antão (single)	Santo Antão (North)	Santo Antão (Porto Novo)	São Nicolau	São Vicente

Regional opening tournaments

Though equivalent to the League Cup used in other countries, Cape Verde are one of a few nations being labelled as an "opening tournament" challenge. Some have became being known as an Association Cup. The light blue indicates a competition having first and second divisions, clubs in different divisions competes in the tournament of the same division (ex. when a club is in a first/premier division, participates in the first/premier division Opening Tournament/Association Cup).

Boa Vista	Brava	Fogo	Maio	Sal	Santiago (North)
Santiago (South)	Santo Antão (single)	Santo Antão (Ribeira Grande)	Santo Antão (Porto Novo)	São Nicolau	São Vicente

Italics indicate that the tournament is not held.

History

The first football competition began in the early 1950s and CS Mindelense won their first title in 1953, then, these competitions were territorial since it was an overseas province of Portugal until its independence on July 1975. Before, only the São Vicente competition existed which began in 1937 and lasted until 1953. A club from São Vicente and Santiago islands were its only entrants. Several competitions were cancelled including in 1954 and between 1956 and 1957. Another cancellations occurred when the last game before independence played and won their last title. The first game after independence was in 1975 and their first title was claimed by CS Mindelense in 1976. The last two cancellations occurred in 1979, 1982 and 1986. From 1976, a club from any of the islands could participate.

In the early 1980s, the creation of more soccer teams led to creating a new division in the 1990s which became based by island except for one of them at the time there were only six and later seven, of which one of them qualified for the two groups. In the mid-1990s, the division were divided into nine which qualified into three groups, A, B and C, and now eleven new insular zones were added for Santiago and Santo Antão and Group C was eliminated reducing to its current two-grouping system. For several times, the champion would be decided on the highest number of points and goals in 2001 and 2002, the highest number of points ever was 19, nine clubs took part in the national championships up to 2003. Sporting Praia holds the highest number of goals scored in the regular season and the total number of 35 in 2005. The champion of the year would complete in the following year's national competition which began in 2005 and raised the total of national championship clubs to twelve, a number stands today. The 2009 season would be the first final competition that featured two clubs from a single island (Santiago) or city (Praia), it would held again in 2010 and recently in 2015 (Derby and Mindelense from Mindelo in the island of São Vicente).

CS Mindelense holds the most number of national titles won numbering eleven, Boavista Praia holds the most number of national cup titles numbering two.

Island/Regional competitions

In 2000, Santiago's South zone became the first zone ever to feature a first and second divisions, followed by Fogo, São Vicente, Northern Santo Antão in the 2000s and recently Sal in 2014. Northern Santiago league is the only league to have the first and final phase competitions, the north and northcentral groups existed in the early years and in around 2010, the group system were eliminated and as of 2015, all 13 clubs competes in the first phase and the top four elevates to the second phase and the winner was decided on the highest number of points and goals. Garridos is the only club to change regional divisions from Northern to Southern Santiago in 2011 as its location is in the south of the island.

The most number of clubs of any island/regional league is Southern Santiago, the fewest is Maio.

Cup, Super Cup and Opening Tournament competitions

The opening tournaments as well as its insular cup and super cup competition were added in 1999 in most of the nine islands, Boa Vista was the last one in which the cup and super cup competition were created in 2011. The Super Cup competitions features a regional champion and a regional cup winner. In some seasons when a club wins a championship and a cup title, the second place cup title participates.

National cup competitions includes the main Cape Verdean Cup which began in 2007 and was held for four seasons, the 2009 and 2011 competition were cancelled and since 2013 and the Cape Verdean Independence Cup.

CAF competitions

The winner of the national championship takes part in the CAF Champions League the following season, the second place club takes part in the CAF Confederation Cup, the first was in 1991 and their recent was Sporting Clube da Praia in 2009. For some years, a champion and a second place club did not appear in the African competition especially between 2002 and 2005, between 2010 and 2015. Once Sporting Praia, a non-champion took part in the 2000 edition. The second place took part in the CAF Cup and the CAF Winner's Cup, from its merger in 2004 until 2015, neither took part in the CAF Confederation Cup. CS Mindelense will be the next club into the 2016 CAF Champions League. As the Cape Verdean Cup was created in 2007, no cup winner took part in the Confederation Cup, as the Cape Verdean Cup was cancelled since 2013, second place FC Derby will be the next club to participate in the 2016 CAF Confederation Cup.

Seasons in Cape Verdean football

1970s:							1976	1977	1978
1980s:	1980	1981		1983	1984	1985	1986		1988	1989
1990s:	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
2000s:	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
2010s:	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015