FC Porto begin title defence at the Dragão: draw rules explained | OneFootball

The draw for the professional competitions is scheduled for this Thursday, at 7 p.m., at the Liga Portugal Arena and, as usual, the League has already made public the list of constraints to be taken into account when defining the 2026/27 calendar. For now, it is possible to guarantee that FC Porto will begin the defence of the title won in 2025/26 at the Estádio do Dragão, that Sporting will make their debut away from home, and that Benfica will play at home on Matchday 1.

Among the “duly proven circumstances of force majeure or exceptional circumstances” is the indication that Sporting, Alverca, Rio Ave and Académico Viseu will play Matchday 1 away from home, in other words, away from their own pitch. This results, as it was possible to determine, from requests submitted by the clubs due to the unavailability of their respective stadiums because of construction work. In the other constraint, which has remained in place for several years, “for security reasons and geographical location” Sporting and Benfica cannot play at home in the same round, nor can Sp. Braga and Vitória, Nacional and Marítimo, or FC Porto and Rio Ave. This confirms that FC Porto will play at home in the opening round, since Rio Ave will have to start away, and that Benfica will also open at the Luz, given that Sporting will play as visitors.

On the other hand, Estoril is expected to play their first match at Amoreira. According to what Portal dos Dragões found out, this situation is related to Torreense, who are not expected to have the pitch at Estádio Manuel Marques ready for the start of the championship and may use Estádio António Coimbra da Mota on a temporary basis to host their home matches. This leads the League to separate the two clubs: Estoril will start at home on Matchday 1 and Torreense will begin the 2nd League away.

Also in terms of security, it is planned that when Sp. Braga or Vitória host one of the big three, the other two cannot play away at Gil Vicente or Famalicão on the same round. The same principle applies in Lisbon to Sporting and Benfica: if there is a clássico at the Luz or at Alvalade, the other giant cannot play at Estoril or Amadora in the same round.

One of the new developments concerns Famalicão joining the group of the 5 teams with the best average points over the previous three seasons, replacing V. Guimarães, and joining Sporting, FC Porto, Benfica and Sp. Braga in that group. One of the constraints is aimed precisely at preventing a team from facing this group of five opponents in consecutive matches.

FC Porto-Sporting possible in the first 4 matchdays

In the first 4 matchdays of Liga Betclic, Benfica and Sp. Braga – the only teams that will play in qualifying rounds for UEFA competitions – will not be able to face clubs from the islands, nor play each other, nor face any of the aforementioned opponents belonging to the top 5 best averages over the previous three seasons. Even so, they may play V. Guimarães, who is no longer part of that group, and there may also be a clash between Sporting and FC Porto in those first 4 rounds, since both enter directly into the league phase of the Champions League.

On matchdays 6, 9, 10, 14, 19, 22, 23, 26, 29 and 32, the teams competing in the Champions League (FC Porto and Sporting) will not be able to face the clubs that are in the Europa League (Benfica) or the Conference League (Sp. Braga). The League is also seeking to avoid teams outside UEFA competitions meeting opponents involved in European competitions in two consecutive rounds.

Finally, as is tradition in Portugal, although now less frequent in Europe’s top leagues, the second half of the championship will mirror the first.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.