Associação Desportiva de Fafe (abbreviated as AD Fafe) is a Portuguese professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based in

Fafe Fafe (), officially the City of Fafe (), is a city and municipality in the northern Portuguese district of Braga. The population in 2021 was 48,502, in an area of approximately . The city itself had a population of 15,703 in 2011. The present ma ...

, in the district of Braga.

Background

AD Fafe currently plays in the Campeonato Nacional de Seniores – Série A which is the third tier of

Portuguese football Association football (), the most popular sport in Portugal, has a long and storied history in the country, following its introduction in 1875 in cities such as Funchal, Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra by English merchants and Portuguese students a ...

. The club was founded in 1958 as a merger of SC Fafe and FC Fafe and they play their home matches at the

Parque Municipal dos Desportos Parque Municipal dos Desportos de Fafe is a multi-use stadium in Fafe, Portugal. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home stadium of AD Fafe. The stadium is able to hold 4,000 people. It was built in 1968 and it is use ...

which was constructed in 1968. The stadium is able to accommodate 4,000 spectators. Improved facilities off the pitch were matched by better performances on the pitch and the club successively moved up divisions. Just as the club was celebrating its 30th anniversary, it achieved a first ever

first division 1st Division or First Division may refer to: Military Airborne divisions *1st Parachute Division (Germany) *1st Airborne Division (United Kingdom) * 1st Airmobile Division (Ukraine) * 1st Guards Airborne Division Armoured divisions *1st Armoure ...

promotion after finishing runner-up in the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

, in 1987–88. In the subsequent top flight campaign, Fafe finished 16th and was immediately relegated, but did manage a shock 0–0 draw at

F.C. Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, MHIH, OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portu ...

. In 1990–91's second division, the club managed to sign 18-year-old

Rui Costa Rui Manuel César Costa (; born 29 March 1972) is a Portuguese former professional footballer who is the 34th president of sports club S.L. Benfica. He also succeeded Luís Filipe Vieira as president of the club's SAD board of directors. ...

(on loan from

S.L. Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football. Founded on 28 February 1904, as ''Sport Lisboa'', Benfica is one of the " ...

), who managed 38 games with 6 goals before "returning home". The next few years were tough because Fafe dropped down two divisions in a couple of years, managing promotion from the fourth level to the

third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (di ...

in 1996, where they remained for over a decade. In 2007–08, under manager Carlos Condeço the club finished 11th. The club is affiliated to

Associação de Futebol de Braga The Braga Football Association (''Associação de Futebol de Braga'', abrv. ''AF Braga'') is the district governing body for the all football competitions in the Portuguese district of Braga since 1992. It is also the regulator of the clubs regis ...

and has entered the national cup competition known as

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; ) is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Generali Tranquilidade since the 2024–25 seaso ...

on many occasions, reaching the semifinals twice, in 1977 and 1979.

Appearances

*Tier 1: 1 *II Divisão: 32 *III Divisão: 15 *

: 41

Season to season

Point total history

Honours

Terceira Divisão : The Terceira Divisão Portuguesa (in English: ''Portuguese Third Division'') was a football league in Portugal, situated at the fourth level of the Portuguese football league system. The Third Division was initially the third level of the Por ...

**Champions (1): 1995–96

Current squad

https://www.adfafe.pt/pt/modalidade/seniores/

Chairmen

Footnotes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fafe Football clubs in Portugal Association football clubs established in 1958 1958 establishments in Portugal Primeira Liga clubs Liga Portugal 2 clubs