History
The Lisbon Casuals Football Club is an offshoot of the football section of the Lisbon Casuals Sports and Social Club, whose Sports sections including Football, Tennis, Badminton, Golf, Scottish Dancing, Hockey, Rugby and American Football, fragmented in 2012.
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A brief history of the origins of the Lisbon Casuals Football Club can be found below:
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1865 - 1922: Lisbon Cricket Club
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The first mention of cricket being played in Portugal goes back to 1736. More formal cricket was played at Campo Pequeno in Lisbon in 1860 and resulted in the formation of the Lisbon Cricket Club in 1865, which also included facilities for football and tennis.
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Records relate to footballs being imported in 1870, the British being pioneers of the game in Portugal and it was the Pinto Basto family, three of whom were members of the club (total membership of 77) who later introduced and contributed greatly to the development of football in Portugal.
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The Lisbon Cricket Club moved to Cruz Quebrada in 1899, where they continued their sporting activities until 1920, which included football.
They made history in 1906 by winning the first ever football tournament in Portugal, so called "Torneio de Foot-ball". The image at the bottom of the screen is a clipping taken from the Newspaper, "Tiro e Sport" on the 28th February 1907, which shows in Picture 3, the Lisbon Cricket Club, playing at home against Sport de Lisboa (the club that came to be Sport Lisboa e Benfica), in the "Torneio de Foot-ball".
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1922 - 1980: Lisbon Sports Club
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The Lisbon Cricket Club was renamed the Lisbon Sports Club in 1922, due to the various sports now being practiced at the club. They bought new grounds at Ajuda, behind the Palácio Nacional having a magnificent view over the Tagus estuary. Apart from cricket, football and tennis, additional facilities were provided for athletics and a nine hole golf course. During this era, at least two club members played football for the Sporting Clube de Portugal, which had become professional.
The club purchased further land at Carregueira during the years that followed, but after the revolution it encountered difficulties in maintaining the facilities and in 1978 the club was disbanded temporarily.
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1980 - 2012: Lisbon Casuals Sports & Social Club
In 1980, a group of former members of the Lisbon Sports Club, agreed to revive the club under the name of the Lisbon Casuals Sports and Social Club, with a new base at St. Julian’s School in Carcavelos, and they built a clubhouse from donations and corporate sponsorship.
Football, Hockey, Tennis, Golf, Rugby, Badminton and Scottish Dancing were thriving sections of the club providing sporting activities to the local and international community.
In 1992, the club contributed towards the laying of the all-weather pitches which served both the school and the Lisbon Casuals well over the years, for a variety of sports.
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In 2012, as a result of the need for more school facilities space on the grounds of St. Julian's School, the Clubhouse was sadly demolished and replaced by new school classrooms and science labs. Without the core base of the Clubhouse, which all the sports sections gravitated around, this event marked the end of the club in its' guise as a centralised managed Sports and Social Club. In order to continue its' survival, the club fragmented and each established sports section pursued their own paths to reform the club according their dedicated sports.
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Partnerships are still maintained between the old Lisbon Casuals sports sections, and contact details of each section can be found in the Partners tab of this site.
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2012 - Present: Lisbon Casuals Football Club
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Managed by David and Damian since 2007, the Lisbon Casuals Football Club plays on a selection of high quality football pitches from Cascais to Carcavelos to the Jamor Sports Complex, which are all just a few kilometers west of Lisbon.
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It operates as a friendly and amateur football club, with a mixture of all ages, nationalities and levels, playing 11-a-side and 7-a-side football games against local teams up and down the country in Portugal, as well as entertaining international Football Tour teams and HMS Ships' Football Teams.
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The club also plays in the annual Badger Cup against the Oporto Cricket and Lawn Tennis Club, which both clubs have contested since 1980. Please see the list of winners by year of the Badger Cup, by clicking here.
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The Lisbon Casuals Football Club are always on the lookout for new players, local teams and tour teams, so please contact us in the contact tab below, to making an enquiry about playing for us or playing against us.
