The Big Three is the nickname of the three most successful sports clubs in Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

. The football

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 teams of Sport Lisboa e Benfica, Futebol Clube do Porto and Sporting Clube de Portugal have a great rivalry, and are usually the main contenders for the title. They share all but two of the Portuguese Football Championships ever played and generally end up sharing the top three positions. The only two clubs outside the big three to have won the Portuguese league are Belenenses in the 1945-46 season

Portuguese Liga 1945-46

-Overview:It was contested by 12 teams, and C.F. Os Belenenses won the championship.-League standings:...

 and Boavista

Boavista FC

Boavista Futebol Clube, commonly known as Boavista , is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Porto. Founded on 1 August 1903, it is one of the oldest clubs in the country, and currently plays in the third division...

 in the 2000-01 season

Portuguese Liga 2000-01

-Overview:It was contested by 18 teams, and Boavista F.C. won the championship. This was one of two occasions where one of Porto, Benfica and Sporting Lisbon did not win the championship.-League standings:...

, now the most powerful objector is SC Braga

SC Braga

Sporting Clube de Braga , commonly known as Sporting de Braga or just Braga, is a Portuguese sports club, from the city of Braga. Its football team plays at the AXA Stadium, also known as The Quarry, which was built for UEFA Euro 2004...

, maybe the fourth of the big three. Ahead of the start of the 2011-12 season, Phil Town of When Saturday Comes

When Saturday Comes

When Saturday Comes is a monthly magazine about football, first published in London in 1986. "It aims to provide a voice for intelligent football supporters, offering both a serious and humorous view of the sport, covering all the topics that fans are likely to talk about, whether serious or...

announced that the Big Three would dominate the forthcoming season.