Stadiums gone and missed: Rio Ave’s Campo da Avenida | OneFootball

Campo da Avenida, Rio Ave’s spiritual home (Photo: www.rioavefc.pt)

There were moments when it seemed the earth shook. Times when Vila do Conde was more akin to a rebellious village preparing to halt every invader than the numb, soulless place of today where football happens but isn’t lived. Not like back then, anyway.

If the Estádio dos Arcos is currently one of the grimmest places to watch football in Portugal, the Campo da Avenida was something else entirely. A place full of life, expectations and a spirit to fight back that turned out to be the backbone of Rio Ave in the years before they rose to the elite.

A million miles from the bearpit of the past

When you now walk around the Arcos ground, there’s nothing to catch your breath. The metro line crosses nearby. The famous Roman aqueduct is in sight – thus the name of the ground – and cars speed past furiously to get to the highway that connects Vila do Conde with Porto and Spain. Just one stand, gloomy and out of date, a club store which is not always open and little else. Rio Ave have played in European competitions on that ground. They were even a penalty kick away from beating the mighty AC Milan in 2021. And yet, the place has no life.

The current Estádio do Rio Ave has a single functioning stand (Photo: www.rioavefc.pt)

That is not to say that Rio Ave lacks passionate support. On the contrary. The greatest proof of that was the long-gone Avenida. A place that was more than just a football pitch. It was a temple, a sanctuary where the fishing community of Vila do Conde and Caxinas got together to sing their hearts out in support of a side that was never spectacular, rarely got to play on the big stage, but which never lacked backing. If only because travelling there was like visiting the dentist. You may come out better off, but it would hurt like hell while you were at it.

Local benefactor bequeaths grounds

The Campo da Avenida wasn’t Rio Ave’s first football ground, yet it also was. They originally trained and played in a velodrome not far away, but in 1940 – when the club were just a few months old – they finally managed to rent some land that would turn out to be the best investment they ever made. Located on the central Baltazar Couto avenue, the ground was christened Avenida after it. The owner, a well-to-do local by the name of António Reis, made a special renting price for the club because he was passionate about the game and excited by the prospect that the city finally had their own football club.

Surrounding it first with fences and then with wooden stands, the Avenida was taking shape little by little. It was a dirt pitch, like most in Portugal of the 1940s, and it remained that way. For the opening match, there was a mass and a procession with the local firefighters providing the music and the fireworks for the event. Rio Ave was a small club then. Founded just the year before, it took its name from the river that crosses Vila do Conde into the Atlantic. The river later came to prominence in Portuguese football because of all the clubs that grew around the textile industry that flourished along several locations on its banks.

For the remainder of the decade, the club climbed the football pyramid within the Porto Football Federation. They began in the fourth tier of the district league and eventually got promoted to the national leagues in the 1960s. By then, the Avenida had already been expanded, its capacity increased with new wooden stands in every direction, to accommodate the passionate local crowd who had full-heartedly embraced Rio Ave as their banner.

Revolution sparks new chapter

Come the Carnation Revolution, and a new wind blew in the north. A country previously dominated by the clubs around Lisbon and Setúbal quickly moved to a football nation rooted in the lands between Porto and Braga. Varzim, Rio Ave’s biggest rival, were quickly promoted to the top tier and suddenly clubs from the Ave region also started to climb the pyramid, fuelled by the investment sponsored by local companies who thrived with the reshaped textile economy that would receive an extra boost when Portugal was finally included in the common market.

Rio Ave were quick to surf the wave, and in 1977, for the first time in their history, they got promoted to the Second Division. It was a week to celebrate as Porto – who remained extremely popular in town – won their first league title in seventeen seasons, and Rio Ave were finally one step closer to the top. The Avenida was decisive during the campaign as the stadium was regularly packed with supporters, mainly comprised of local fishermen who had in the club one of the few joys life could give them.

The Estádio da Avenida packed to capacity for a match between Rio Ave and Benfica (Image: www.gloriasdopassado.blogspot.com)

There was an authentic connection between the players and club’s supporters, and on the final day of the season, after clinching promotion, the team bus was escorted for miles all the way to the city hall to be celebrated by their faithful. It was the beginning of something special. In their first season in the second tier, Rio Ave fought almost right to the end to get promoted to the first tier. Then, in 1978/79, with Manuel Pedro Gomes – a Sporting legend and Cup Winners Cup victor with the Lions – they finally did it by finishing the league in second place. Four decades after the club had been founded, they would be swimming among the big fish.

Avenida’s heyday among the big boys

The Avenida was, by then, a landmark stadium in northern Portugal, well known by everyone who visited for its special atmosphere. It was outdated. The club did minor repair works and tried to improve safety, but it was becoming clear that, if Rio Ave wanted to keep on growing to the point of establishing themselves as a first division side, they would need to find somewhere else to play. It was a tough debate to have, particularly among a crowd who had only known the Avenida as the club’s ground and were deeply emotionally attached to it.

Besides, between 1980 and 1984, Rio Ave enjoyed four seasons that the Vilacondense would never forget. Despite ending up last in their first season at the top, they quickly rose from their ashes and under the leadership of Félix Mourinho, immediately climbed back, winning their first-ever professional trophy, the Second Division championship. Among the squad players was a certain José Mourinho, son of the manager and a midfielder who didn’t show great promise but who had helped out his father by scouting the side’s opponents with precision. In their first campaign back at the top, Rio Ave surprised everyone and finished the league in fifth, their best ever result.

Rio Ave manager Félix Mourinho coached his son José at Rio Ave when the club played at the Avenida

Home fortress

Part of the reason was the impeccable record at home, a ground that was proving to be almost impossible to breach for the away opposition. Future league champions Sporting were held to a 0-0 draw, and Benfica was beaten 1-0, with a late Manuel Pires goal that drove the crowd crazy. Of all the sides that visited the Campo da Avenida, only Porto came out on top, a testament to the ground’s positive impact on the club’s fortunes. Despite finishing 8th in the following season – still a remarkable result – the club was only beaten at home by the Big Three, enjoying 12 of their 13 wins in front of their home crowd.

However, despite all the positive effects the Avenida had on the side, the Portuguese Football Federation’s new set of regulations meant it was practically impossible for the club to keep on playing there. It became mandatory for all clubs to have a grass pitch and proper safety conditions, two rules that the Avenida did not comply with. The club brought the Vila do Conde city hall into the loop, and it was they who, eventually, bought the land next to the aqueduct to build the Estádio dos Arcos during the 1983/84 season so that the club could move at the beginning of the following campaign.

Rip-roaring final season

The final campaign at the famous old ground was a season of mixed feelings. On the one hand, supporters were aware it was the Avenida’s last hurrah and every game incorporated a sense of nostalgia, but, at the same time, perhaps inspired by the legacy of the Avenida, the squad overperformed once again and, for the first time in the club’s history, Rio Ave qualified for the Portuguese Cup final.

The first rounds were played away from home, but then came the last sixteen tie against local rivals Varzim. The Avenida was packed like never before to witness a fascinating 2-2 draw that forced a replay to be played two days later in Póvoa do Varzim. A sole Quim goal – who would later play in the 1987 European Cup final for Porto – in extra time qualified Rio Ave for the last eight, where they faced Estoril. After another draw, a replay staged at the Avenida was needed, and once again the local crowd’s roar proved decisive, with Rio Ave beating the Cascais train line club 3-1.

For the third consecutive time, they would need extra game to progress as a draw in Guimarães meant the final place in the final, against Porto, would be decided in Vila do Conde. The town is popularly known as Guimarães beach, because of the long-lasting tradition of the inhabitants from that city to take the road to the coast to enjoy the local beaches at Vila do Conde, so there was more to it than just the football rivalry. By then, believing that it could be no coincidence that the Avenida was being emotionally decisive and some miracle was being cooked up, the players decided to grow beards to accompany the traditional long hair of the time, promising they would only cut and shave after the cup final.

Campo da Avenida was an important focal point for the local community over many decades (Photo: www.rioavefc.pt)

Avenida plays its part in epic Portuguese Cup run

The side became popularly known as Os Barbudos – the Bearded Ones – and began a trend among the local fanatics. Hosting the Cup semifinal replay was the Avenida’s last great moment. The stadium was fully packed on that April 4th afternoon, with only a late Paquito Saura goal prevented Rio Ave from winning it in the 90 minutes. The match went to extra time and ended in a penalty shootout, and the local players felt, once again, that the ground was also playing its part as the Vitória’s footballers were numbed by the crowd’s roar and ended up misplacing two spot kicks of the series to allow Rio Ave to book a ticket at Jamor.

They would lose the final – 4-1 against FC Porto – weeks later, and the final match played at the Avenida was a league match, against Agueda, winning 5-1. There were tears among many in the crowd. The following season started with the inauguration of the new Estádio dos Arcos in a match against Sporting. Originally, it had a capacity for 20,000 supporters and felt fresh and new, but the club felt emotionally challenged by the change, and Rio Ave ended up being relegated.

Rio Ave played on their Campo da Avenida dirt pitch up until the mid-1980s (Photo: www.gloriasdopassado.blogspot.com)

New stadium but the magic was gone

They bounced back immediately once again. But by the end of the decade, they were lingering in the second tier, watching as neighbouring clubs were getting the better of them regularly. Supporters felt misplaced. They were no longer close to the pitch, shouting ferociously against rivals and referees – the local women had become famous nationwide for their incessant hollering often captured on television – and the fans no longer felt part of the physical structure as in the past, when many of them had helped paint and take care of the old ground as if it was their own. Somehow, the change hurt the football soul of the city forever.

By the mid-1990s, Rio Ave managed to climb back to the top, and they have been a yo-yo club ever since, mixing consecutive campaigns in the second tier with remarkable achievements such as another Cup final, lost against Benfica, as well as a League Cup final in the same 2013/14 season and a maiden qualification for European competition.

Golden memories

Meanwhile, the Avenida stadium was dismantled, as housing blocks were built where the old ground stood. Today, a plaque still marks the spot where the fanatical crowds of Vila do Conde met every other Sunday to support a club that was always a powerful symbol for the local community.

Rio Ave may be foreign-owned now, and they play in a soulless ground, the once proud Estádio dos Arcos now reduced to a one-tier stadium, yet they were always a passionately supported club. Nothing tells that tale better than the early 1980s when the Campo da Avenida became one of the most dreaded and beloved football pitches in Portuguese football.