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 the Cape Verdean Football Federation, 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.

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 become known as an Association Cup in Boa Vista and São Vicente. 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).

Italics indicate that the tournament is not held.

Regional Champion's Cup
Cape Verde are one of the most recent countries to have a Champion's Trophy competition labelled as the Champion's Cup. They were first held in 2016, Fogo, Maio and São Vicente are the only regions having the competition.

History
Football was first introduced around the 1910s, the first area where it was introduced was the island of São Vicente, later it was introduced to the island of Santiago, then Sal. CS Mindelense based in the island of São Vicente is the oldest club in Cape Verde founded in 1919 and became official member on 25 May 1922, football was first played, the second oldest is Santiago Island's first football club named Sporting Clube da Praia, later FC Derby founded on 5 August 1929, was founded, two years later on the same city, Vitória FC was founded, two of the clubs were the first named after a Portuguese club. Official competition did not start until 1938 and Mindelense was the first club to win a regional title, the colonial title was then official. Also at the same time, the third island to have a football club was Sal where SC Santa Maria was founded in the then island capital, later in 1952, the fourth island to have a club would be Boa Vista with Sport Sal Rei Club.

National championships
The first all-island 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 in 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. Unlike other Portuguese overseas province at the time, Mindelense was the only club ever competed in the Portuguese Cup competition and participated twice in 1966 in 1971, the least of any overseas province (later autonomous provinces) in the Portuguese Empire. 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 reduced to its 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. Also in the season, Sporting Praia scored 13–0 over Desportivo Estância Baixo making it the highest scoring match in the national championships and still stands today. Zé di Tchétcha scored the highest goals in the championships numbering 14. 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), the most final match features with two of the clubs was with Sporting Praia and Mindelense four times (in 1977, 1988, the next was Mindelense and Botafogo (in 1976, 1980 and 1981) three times and Mindelense and Académica do Porto Novo (in 2012 and 2016). Sporting Praia and CS Mindelense each won four consecutive titles, the first Sporting Praia between 2006 and 2009 and Mindelense since 2013. In the 2017 season which starts in mid-May, the triangular system would be returned and will feature four clubs in each of the three groups, the remainder each champion of the regional association (some of them having its own Premier/First Division) and will have the final phase, the previous season's champion qualified and Mindelense will be placed in Group A.

CS Mindelense holds the most national titles won numbering twelve.

Island/Regional competitions
In around 1995, Santiago's South zone became the first zone ever to feature a first and second divisions, followed by Fogo and São Vicente in 2008, Northern Santo Antão in 2013, Sal in 2014 and Maio, the most recent in 2015. 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 up to 2015, all 13 clubs competed 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. In the early 2010s, instead of two clubs directly relegating, the promotional/unelevated matches were introduced and a two-match system are featured in the regional championships of Fogo, Santiago North and South (not in 2016) Zones and São Vicente, the club with the most points either stays or be promoted, the club with the least either be promoted or not be promoted in the following season.

The most clubs of any island/regional league is Southern Santiago, the fewest is Brava, Maio once held it until 2015.

In the early 2010s, Cape Verde would contain around a hundred football clubs in 11 regional competitions, some of them with two divisions. In 2014, six new football clubs were added to the Sal Island League and the second division was formed., a year later in 2015, nearly all of the clubs (one of them was suspended) returned to the competition in the Santiago North Zone, some new clubs were added and the two division system were established, the regional league featured a 26 match season and saw some records in goals, wins and points got by some clubs, the 2015-16 Santiago North Zone season was the longest regional season of any of the regional leagues in the country, Varandinha was the 2015/16 winner with a record number of points numbering 63 succeeding the South Zone's Sporting Praia's total of 49 which was in 2005, the South Zone of Santiago was the second longest and the third longest being Fogo. Until 2015, Maio had the shortest regional season of any of the regional leagues in the country, Brava has the shortest since that time. The length of the season of the Santiago North Zone is now the same as the Santiago South Zone. Some of the second division matches takes places in May and up to June especially Santiago North.

On 7 February 2017, over the pay that some referees need for rounds 17 and 26 of the previous season and the rounds of this season, the Santiago North Zone season was postponed for two weeks, the regional competition resumed on 25 February as the referees were paid four days earlier by its sponsorship of two telecommunications companies, one of them was Cabo Verde Telecom and the municipalities where the clubs are based.

Other records includes best season which Académica Porto Novo had achieved in 2012 that were all wins. The longest unbeaten streak of any of the island leagues was Académica Porto Novo which lasted around 50 to 60 matches without a loss that lasted between 2012 and 23 April 2016, the record also ended on away matches which the club lost to CS Marítimo 2–1, the record continues on home matches. Académica also has a record combined with Cup and Super Cup matches but not the Santo Antão Cup which was the first cup loss that Académica Porto Novo had/. The second is Mindelense that lasted from 29 March 2014 to 16 April 2016 with the loss to Amarante, along with home (started from 12 January) and away to matches (up to 24 April 2016 with the loss to Derby).

Several seasons had a club or two fielded ineligible players for a part or all of the season, such as FC Ultramarina and SC Atlético in the 2005 São Nicolau season and recently Académica do Mindelo for five matches with a fake goalkeeper for the 2016–17 season. For some seasons, there were championship disputes in one of the region, São Nicolau in 2005 and one season, and Santiago North Premier Division including Scorpion Vermelho and Varandinha in 2016 and AJAC da Calheta and Benfica Santa Cruz in 2017.

Cup, Super Cup, Opening Tournament and Champions' Trophy competitions
The opening tournaments as well as its insular cup and super cup competition were added in 1985 in the island of Santiago, later in 1999 in most of the nine islands, Boa Vista created theirs in 2009, Brava and Maio were 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. Santiago North Zone does not have these competitions, not even the opening tournament. The Opening Tournament (equivalent to a League Cup) only features one portion where a club competes once with a different club of the two divisions, in São Vicente (including the adjacent islands), it is known as the Association Cup and features two divisions with one portion where a club competes once with a different club, these take place at the start of the season a month (or two) before the regional championships begin. The one on Boa Vista island created before the cup and super cup competitions were created in around 2007. The Championship Trophy was first implemented in 2016 which features the champion of the regional Premier and Second Divisions in several regional championships. The first one was the São Vicente Champions' Cup held on October 15 which featured Mindelense and Ribeira Bote, Mindelense won their first and only title. Maio and Fogo also held their first editions in November where Real Marítimo (Second Division) and Vulcânicos (Premier Division) won. There are three in Cape Verde.

National cup competitions includes the main Cape Verdean Cup which began in 2007 and was held for four seasons, the 2008 and 2011 competition were cancelled and since 2013 and the Cape Verdean Independence Cup. The Cape Verdean Super Cup was held in 2013 between a championship and a cup winner, Sporting Praia faced Onze Unidos and Sporting Praia claimed their only title, the 2014 edition was challenged with the country's second greatest team Sporting Praia. Boavista Praia holds the most national cup titles numbering two.

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 1992 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 is uncertain to qualify into the 2017 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, it is uncertain that a club will qualify in the 2017 CAF Confederation Cup. A total of six clubs participated including Sporting Praia, Mindelense, FC Derby, Académica do Sal, Boavista Praia and Travadores, only one club SC Atlético was disqualified due to that the football federation did not name the entrant on time.

Stadiums in Cape Verde
The most used stadium in the country is Estádio da Várzea which is located in Praia, it holds up to 8.000 capacity. The largest stadium in Cape Verde is Estádio Municipal Adérito Sena which is located in Mindelo on the island of São Vicente which has 12,000 seats. The most football venues on the island is Santiago.