Boavista Futebol Clube

Boavista Futebol Clube (pron. boɐ'viʃtɐ), often simply known as Boavista, is a sports club from Porto, Portugal that was founded in 1903. Nicknamed Panteras (Panthers) and Axadrezados (literally checkereds), Boavista grew to become Porto's second greatest club with sections dedicated to several sports, such as Volleyball, Chess, Gymnastics, Bicycle racing and Futsal (among others), being the most notable the Football section. The trademark of the team are the checkered white and black shirts. Estádio do Bessa, their stadium, was built in 1973 and remodeled in time for the Euro 2004, but plans for renewal already existed. Internally, Boavista grew from a minor team in the 70's to a regular fixture in Europe since then. The first "threat" to the The Big Three title domination was in 75-76 under guidance of José Maria Pedroto, when Boavista finished second, achieving the same position later in 98-99. Finally, in 00-01 Boavista won the SuperLiga over rivals FC Porto, but haven't managed to hold the title, finishing second to Sporting in 2002. Boavista also won 5 Portuguese cups (74-75, 75-76, 78-79, 91-92 and 96-97)

In Europe, Boavista was commonly known as the club with the strange shirts, and achieved moderate success, knocking out Inter Milan and AS Roma in the early 90's. The highlight is still the brilliant UEFA Cup run in 2003, when they were knocked out by Celtic in the semi-finals in the Estádio do Bessa. During the 1991 UEFA Cup season Boavista FC managed to knock out Inter Milan 2-1 in the Group stages. In the UEFA Cup 1981-82 Boavista FC eliminated Atlético Madrid 5-4. In the 1993-1994 UEFA Cup season, Boavista made it to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup after knocking out Greece clube OFI Crete and beating S.S. Lazio of Italy. In the 86-87 UEFA Cup, Boavista beat heavy favourites ACF Fiorentina but lost to Rangers FC in a tense second round game at the Ibrox Stadium.

Boavista has played twice in the Champions League. After a first, modest, participation in 1999, Boavista surprised Europe in 2001 by beating and knocking out German giants Borussia Dortmund.In the first group stages, the club started at its best with an away 1-1 draw with Liverpool FC after being in the lead by 0-1 with a goal from Elpidio Silva.They reached the top of the group on the second match, with an home 3-1 victory over Dynamo Kyiv and taking advantage of a draw between Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool FC. They moved on to the third game as leaders to meet once again Borussia Dortmund and once again they came out victorious, this time with a 2-1 victory at home. On the second round they went down in performance and lost in Germany, later drew at home with Liverpool and lost in Ukraine in the final match. However, the magnificent performance of the first leg of the group along with the home point conquered against Liverpool was enough to go through to the second phase as Dortmund lost in Liverpool on their last game. Boavista went through to the second phase where they met stronger challenges like Manchester United and Bayern Munich. With their financial objective more than complete, new horizons were rising for the team when they once again started the group by surprising Nantes at home winning by 1-0, and reaching the top of the group after the draw between Manchester United and Bayern Munich. On the second game Boavista was smashed 3-0 by Manchester United at the Old Trafford but they managed to draw 0-0 at home against Bayern Munich, even though at the end of the game it felt like more could be done against the Germans. As they entered they second leg of the group, Boavista was only one point away from the qualification zone, but that changed when they went to Munich and lost by 1-0, Manchester won 5-1 against Nantes, so they had two more games and 4 points to win over the group leaders. They went to France and draw and then, once again, were defeated by United again to a 3-0 score, this time at home. Although they didn't go through, they were the remaining Portuguese team on the European competitions and had the best International result among the Portuguese that year. In the 2002/2003 UEFA Cup Boavista also knocked out Israeli giants Maccabi Haifa F.C., German giants Hertha BSC Berlin and Paris Saint-Germain in a very tense game that came close to being stopped due to massive riots which involved many Boavista fans being arrested , but unfortunately they would lose to eventual finalists Celtic FC at the Estadio do Bessa in the Semis. Fierce rivals FC Porto won the title.

The football side has reputation in Portugal and for many teams they oppose in UEFA competitions for its aggressive style, playing with very much determination, and, because of this, resulting always in hard-fought matches for their opponent team, even in defeats. With this, Boavista were a very hard-working team, and the main example is the Portuguese title, where the team was the one with less goals against, and being one of the best attacks of the championship. The good defense play was a key factor for the title win, as well as European marvelous campaigns, mainly under the guidance of Jaime Pacheco. After the UEFA Cup semi-final run, the team started to play a less attractive football, which kept for the next two years. This image started to change when Jaime Pacheco was replaced by Carlos Brito for the 2005-2006 season, but later Jaime Pacheco came back to substitute Jesualdo Ferreira and that reputation caught back with the club.

Boavista main rival is FC Porto. The matches between the two teams are pretty aggressive, especially when played at Estádio do Bessa. Boavista also has an intense rivalry with Belenenses and Vitória Guimarães. The games between the teams often have problems inside or outside the field.

The women's team is one of the strongest, having won several titles in a row during the 90's.