S.L. Benfica B

Benfica B

Full name	Sport Lisboa e Benfica "B"
Founded	1999
Ground	Caixa Futebol Campus
Ground Capacity	2,720
President	Luís Filipe Vieira
Manager	Hélder Cristóvão
League	LigaPro
2015–16	19th
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours

Active departments of Sport Lisboa e Benfica
Football	Football B	Football U-19
Futsal	Roller hockey	Basketball
Handball	Volleyball	Athletics
Swimming	Rugby union	Table tennis
Billiards	Canoeing

Sport Lisboa e Benfica "B" is a Portuguese professional football team based in Seixal. Founded in 1999, dissolved in 2006, and restarted in 2012, it is the reserve team of Portuguese club S.L. Benfica. They play in the LigaPro, holding home games at the Caixa Futebol Campus.

During the 2012–13 season, they played home games at the Estádio da Luz until February 2013, when they moved to Estádio da Tapadinha to prevent excessive wear of the stadium's grass.^[1] In 2013–14, Benfica B moved permanently to their own training ground now capable of receiving professional league matches. As a reserve team they cannot play in the same division as the main team, thus being ineligible for promotion. They are also not permitted to enter cup competitions such as the Taça de Portugal and Taça da Liga.

History

As Benfica sought a way to provide playing time for their youth players and reserves it created this B team in 1999, it officially started competing in the 1999–2000 season. After three seasons in the Portuguese Second Division, it suffered relegation to the Portuguese Third Division, where it would spend a further three years.^[2] The team achieved promotion to the Portuguese Second Division in 2005. In May of the following year, the board of directors extinguished the side, which returned to activity shortly after as part of the Liga Intercalar. As part of the Liga Intercalar, the club's best league position saw them finish second place behind Estoril B in the south zone of the 2010–11 season.

Before the end of the 2011–12 football season in Portugal, seven clubs in the Primeira Liga announced there interest in constructing a B team to fill the six vacant places available to compete in the Segunda Liga for the 2012–13 season.^[3] Of those seven, the six clubs which were selected to take part in the competition were the B teams of Benfica, Porto, Sporting CP, Braga, Marítimo and Vitória de Guimarães.^[4]

The LPFP who organizes the professional football tiers in Portugal announced that for the clubs to compete next season they would have to pay €50,000 to register themselves in the league.^[5] In addition the LPFP would also require the clubs to follow new rules regarding player selection in which each 'B' team must have a squad of a minimum of ten players who were formed at the club's academy as well as having an age requirement between 15 and 21 years old. The LPFP also went on to saw that the clubs are unable to compete in cup competitions as well as gaining promotion due to the possibility of playing the senior team. Each 'B' team may have 3 players above 23 years old.

In late May 2012, it was officially announced that the six Primeira Liga clubs' B teams would compete in the 2012–13 Segunda Liga which would increase the number of teams in the league from 16 to 22 as well as increasing the number of games needed to play in one season from thirty games to forty two games.^[6]

Starting line-up of Benfica B for a friendly game against F.C. United of Manchester in May 2015

In 2014 they were invited to play in the Premier League International Cup. On 29 May 2015, Benfica B played a friendly against F.C. United of Manchester in Broadhurst Park's official opening match.^[7][8]

Season to season

• 4 seasons in LigaPro
• 4 seasons in Segunda Divisão
• 3 seasons in Terceira Divisão

Honours

• Portuguese Third Division

• Winners: 2004–05

Players

Current squad

As of 5 November 2016^[9][10]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 16 DF Branimir Kalaica 26 FW Ivan Šaponjić 35 FW Luka Jović 51 MF Adel Taarabt 53 DF Alexis Scholl 54 FW Romário Baldé 55 MF Gilson Costa 59 FW Oliver Šarkić 60 DF Pedro Amaral 61 MF Florentino Luís 63 MF Pelé 65 DF João Escoval 66 DF Rúben Dias (captain) 67 DF Reinildo Mandava 68 MF Gonçalo Rodrigues 70 FW José Gomes 71 DF Alan Benítez

No. Position Player 72 GK Ivan Zlobin 73 FW João Filipe 79 MF João Félix 80 FW Dálcio 81 MF Filipe Ferreira 82 FW Luquinhas 84 FW Diogo Gonçalves 85 FW Bilal Ould-Chikh 86 GK André Ferreira 88 MF Pedro Rodrigues 90 MF João Carvalho 91 FW Heriberto Tavares 94 MF Aurélio Buta 95 DF Yuri Ribeiro 97 DF Francisco Ferreira 98 GK Fábio Duarte 99 DF Emir Azemović

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 31 MF Victor Andrade (at TSV 1860 Munich until 30 June 2017) 37 DF César (at Nacional until 30 June 2017) 40 MF João Teixeira (at Wolverhampton Wanderers until 30 June 2017) 56 MF Carlos Ponck (at Chaves until 30 June 2017) 57 MF Paweł Dawidowicz (at VfL Bochum until 30 June 2017) 96 DF João Lima (at União de Leiria until 30 June 2017) — DF Alexandre Alfaiate (at Académica until 30 June 2017) — DF Hildeberto Pereira (at Nottingham Forest until 30 June 2017)

No. Position Player — DF Vitali Lystsov (at Tondela until 30 June 2017) — MF Alfa Semedo (at Vilafranquense until 30 June 2017) — MF Hélder Costa (at Wolverhampton Wanderers until 30 June 2017) — MF Jorge Rojas (at Cerro Porteño) — FW Francisco Vera (at Fénix) — FW Hamdou Elhouni (at Chaves until 30 June 2017) — FW Juan San Martín (at Louletano)

Personnel

Technical staff

List of managers

Information correct as of the match played on 14 May 2016. Only competitive matches are counted.

Name	Nat	From	To	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	Win %	Honours	Refs
Alan Murray		1999	November 1999	7000900000000000000♠9	7000400000000000000♠4	5000000000000000000♠0	7000500000000000000♠5	7001130000000000000♠13	7001120000000000000♠12	7001444400000000000♠44.44		[11][12]
José Morais		November 1999	2001	7001670000000000000♠67	7001240000000000000♠24	7001170000000000000♠17	7001260000000000000♠26	7001980000000000000♠98	7001940000000000000♠94	7001358200000000000♠35.82		[13][14]
António Veloso		9 June 2001	2002	7001380000000000000♠38	7001110000000000000♠11	7001110000000000000♠11	7001160000000000000♠16	7001350000000000000♠35	7001420000000000000♠42	7001289500000000000♠28.95		[15][16]
Carlos Gomes		2002	2004	7001680000000000000♠68	7001280000000000000♠28	7001240000000000000♠24	7001160000000000000♠16	7002107000000000000♠107	7001720000000000000♠72	7001411800000000000♠41.18		[17][18]
João Santos		2004	2006	7001640000000000000♠64	7001320000000000000♠32	7001170000000000000♠17	7001150000000000000♠15	7002111000000000000♠111	7001690000000000000♠69	7001500000000000000♠50.00	2004–05 Terceira Divisão	[19][20]
Luís Norton de Matos		4 May 2012	30 May 2013	7001420000000000000♠42	7001150000000000000♠15	7001170000000000000♠17	7001100000000000000♠10	7001710000000000000♠71	7001540000000000000♠54	7001357100000000000♠35.71		[21][22]
Hélder Cristóvão		31 May 2013	Present	7002134000000000000♠134	7001570000000000000♠57	7001310000000000000♠31	7001460000000000000♠46	7002217000000000000♠217	7002180000000000000♠180	7001425400000000000♠42.54		[23][24]

References

External links

• Official website (Portuguese) (English) (Spanish)
• S.L. Benfica B at LPFP (Portuguese)