COMPETITIONS

The core business of Liga Portugal is to ensure the organisation of professional football competitions in Portugal. The constant monitoring and analysis of national and international competitions are one of the main pillars that greatly contribute to making competitive frameworks adjusted and integrated into the scope of national football, thus ensuring and contributing to the implementation of more sustainable competitive models adapted to the national reality.

This department works in close coordination with the Sports Societies and other entities involved in the game organisation in order to ensure that competitions and match operations run smoothly and in full compliance with the applicable regulatory standards. The planning, throughout the season, is taken in a 360º scope, aligning and aggregating the Sports Societies, security forces, city halls, and television operators, among other stakeholders.

This department brings together several areas and works in close and full articulation with all other departments of Liga Portugal.

The starting point of each competition begins with the organisation of its sports calendar, which is an essential part of the planning for every sports season. The sports calendar begins to be prepared and designed beforehand and is based on the international guidelines, i.e. the international sports calendar. In the preparation of the sporting calendar, the Permanent Commission for Calendars, in close coordination with the Portuguese Football Federation and with all the Sports Societies, are involved in the first evaluation.

The Permanent Commission for Calendars is a committee created and composed by the Sports Societies that are part of the Liga Portugal Board, nominated each season, also with the television operators being invited to participate. The active participation of the Permanent Commission for Calendars, throughout the season, allows for an integrated prior assessment of the applicable regulatory standards and, consequently, a more balanced proposal for match scheduling.

It is also responsible for arranging the conditions for the sports calendar, allowing the defence of the interests of all Sports Societies, specifically those that protect the image of Portuguese football on international terms.

season, present inputs and guidelines that lead to proposals for regulatory changes and procedural improvements for implementation in the new sports season.

The continuous and increasingly expanded focus on training also integrates the preparation of each season, since all individuals directly linked to the match organisation need to develop preparation courses in order to make the respective registrations. We are talking about Field Directors, Security, Press, Supporter Liaison Officers, among others. Only with better human resources will we be able to have a more organised competition, that allows facing the daily challenges that the competition itself increasingly demands. In this context, the articulation with the Talent Business Center is essential.

Another important partner in our activities is the National Association of Football Coaches (ANTF), an entity that collaborates with the League in order to allow football coaches to come together and have an active voice in defending professional football, and therefore webinars will be held with the coaches throughout the season.

Other matters such as kits, distribution of match balls, accreditation and sharing of official documents are the responsibility of this department, in close articulation with necessary internal and external areas.

The preparation for each sports season takes place beforehand of the season in progress. The Working Groups, which meet up throughout the

The organisation of matches requires a weekly and permanent follow-up to manage situations that occur throughout

The daily and permanent contact with the Sports Societies poses the challenge of creating, perfecting and adjusting documents that allow a quick, effective, clear and professional contact and exchange of information.

This is the only way to guarantee that all actions, activations, exchange of verification and control models and all other issues that require articulation are dealt with and streamlined in an assertive manner.

The Match Centre of Liga Portugal is, in this context, a very important tool on matchdays, because its multidisciplinary team ensures the monitoring of all the sports agents involved in the organisation of the match.

On the other hand, all the statistical data related to the competitions is monitored, essential information to support Liga Portugal's digital platforms. Where possible, monitoring is carried out on the pitch to provide greater support to Sports Societies.

A A forced interruption of normality by the Covid-19 pandemic required a change in the normal routine and highlighted the importance of promoting health and preventing illness, in sport in general, and in football in particular. This time, we will proceed with the implementation of a Health Department whose main goal will be the coordination with the clubs' medical departments and collaboration with strategic partners such as the AMEF.

The safety of players and supporters at our competitions continues to be a significant challenge. With this concern in mind, the Security Department will be created, whose main objective will be the permanent monitoring of the competition, in close liaison with the security directors of the clubs; it is intended to articulate the internal security of the League, establish and mediate relations with the authorities, monitor and analyse security information and data, and establish international links in this area.

Liga Portugal has been making a big investment in the development of the Technical Inspection Committee that, among other functions, monitors the pitches and infrastructures of the professional competitions throughout the sports season.

This season new steps will also be taken in the verification and monitoring of the lighting systems through external audits carried out by a contracted entity to verify the various systems and regulatory compliance.

This Technical Committee was involved in the preparation of the infrastructure manual, which provides information on best practices and guidelines for the enhancement and improvement of infrastructures.

Among the functions to be developed by the Technical Inspection Committee (CTV) we highlight the licensing of stadiums which, following the best international practices, it ensures that sports infrastructures have all the legal and regulatory requirements necessary for professional competitions. CTV's challenge is becoming more demanding since the protection of the competition's image is a mandatory value that we have to consider.

The entire licensing procedure is set out in a specific manual and is properly articulated with the other assumptions related to the licensing of clubs that participate in professional competitions.

In the 2022-23 sports season, the entire stadium licensing process is carried out on its own digital platform, in an infrastructure module that ensures total dematerialisation of the process, a permanent historical archive and greater ease of control of deadlines throughout the sports season.

Pitches are a fundamental tool for the true artists of Portuguese professional football to demonstrate all their Football with Talent. Throughout the season, there is permanent monitoring of the pitches that aims to provide guidance to reduce asymmetries in the playing fields between the various stadiums and provide the best conditions for the sporting spectacle. The goal is to value the competition and its assets, and this is the best way to promote the football industry.

The quality of the turf is the major visual aspect of each match, so it is essential to have reinforced attention, which ultimately led CTV to invest in the specific area.

Within the regulatory framework, it is Liga Portugal’s responsibility to monitor the condition of the pitches, under the terms foreseen in football, under the terms foreseen in the football pitch guidelines, a manual that aims to provide clear guidance on best practices to ensure good turf condition.

Therefore, the Match Center ranks the conditions of the pitches on each match day, which is also carried out by the refereeing teams and the League Delegates. This ranking system aims to reward, at the end of the season, the best football pitches according to the criteria set out in the aforementioned manual.

This CTV specific area also issues opinions and guidelines that are sent to Sports Societies regarding the maintenance of their turfs.

The Licensing Manual includes specific guidelines on procedures and turf evaluations to ensure that the stadiums of professional competitions meet all regulatory requirements and have all the conditions for football practice, thus ensuring the enhancement of the competition's image.

Each season, a set of specifications is presented to the clubs in Liga 3 in order for them to comply with the mandatory rules and guidelines, in case they secure access to professional football competitions.

In addition to the infrastructural requirements, the specifications include further relevant requirements such as financial, legal and marketing criteria. This early training, in joint coordination with the Portuguese Football Federation, allows to give the proper knowledge on the development of professional competitions and have a first approach with a view to streamlining the licensing process of stadiums.

The Delegates project has been one of the core tasks of the Liga Portugal Board since these sports professionals represent the League in each game and are considered the fourth team on the pitch.

The performance of these agents is very important and contributes greatly to the increasingly professionalised growth of professional football, which is why a large investment is made in the training, recruitment and evaluation of these professionals.

Their main responsibility is to facilitate interaction between the various agents that are part of the organisation of the game: field director, security director, security forces chief, squads, refereeing team, anti-doping team, and media, among others; ensure the legal conditions and required by regulation for the kick-off of the game; arrange the preparatory meeting for each game; report to the Liga all the information provided and relevant, along with other documentation of the game.

In order to ensure total transparency in the process, a computer platform was created, the SAND platform (Support System for Appointment of Delegates) which provides a description and record of each delegate, which helps in the selection to ensure less intervention for greater balance and consistency in the choice of delegates. All actions taken on this platform are duly recorded and warranted.

In the context of preparing these representatives for the future that lies ahead, namely the centralisation of media rights, Liga Portugal has guaranteed the presence of these professionals in international matches and has carried out exchanges with La Liga in Spain. With this exchange, we intend to share experiences from both sides, which will certainly be important for the growth and professionalization of the Delegates.

Throughout the sports season, the Liga Portugal delegates are subject to a continuous assessment, by following the guidelines issued by Liga Portugal and based on external consultants to ensure greater quality and credibility in the process. In order to provide greater consistency to the preparation and evaluation project, a mentoring program was created, which consists of a permanent follow-up between evaluators and trainees. With this project, we intend for those evaluators and trainees to feel that they are being permanently followed up and that the training project meets the most demanding needs that are felt.

At the end of the season, a list of delegates is created, that consists of the evaluation for all delegates, which will then determine their promotion or demotion.

In 2021, integrated into the Recruitment and Training Plan, Liga Portugal opened the institution's preparation course for Match Delegates. The Delegate preparation course allows participants to be more prepared to be candidates for the Liga Portugal Delegate team. This is something that we intend to develop and maintain through the Talent Business Center, since professionalisation will continue to be our main objective.

Liga Portugal articulates with the Refereeing Board of the Portuguese Football Federation, all the necessary information and logistics to ensure the operation of this sector.

Every season, articulation meetings are held in order to have greater monitoring, in accordance with the regulatory terms of VAR and all the logistics inherent to the refereeing teams.

The analysis and evolution of national and international competitive frameworks is something that is constantly examined in close coordination with national and international entities.

The objective is to ensure greater competitiveness of Portuguese teams while always safeguarding domestic competitions.

Throughout the season, international information and guidelines will be analysed and followed to assess the ongoing national and international developments.

The infrastructures portal is a tool that will ensure that all licensing of stadiums will be carried out using through a complete dematerialisation process. All reports and documentation will be made available and evaluated in an intuitive and easy-to-use platform. All information collected on this portal will be imported into the Stadium Technical Sheet and other digital platforms of the Liga.

It should be noted that the licensing manual will dictate all deadlines for managing the portal and that the inspections will take place in physical format always and exclusively using digital platforms.

Still in the development phase, this portal will allow more efficient contact with the sports societies, agents, referees and delegates. This tool will allow Liga Portugal to issue and receive all the information and game organisation sheets in a secure way, facilitating their access and verification.

The objective is to create a global platform where all information is shared and analysed. It is intended to be an interactive portal for notifying and warning whether the regulatory deadlines are being complied with or not. This is a platform that will ensure continuity in the dematerialisation process that began with the implementation of the e-Liga.