Briosa

Briosa

The Associação Académica de Coimbra – Organismo Autónomo de Futebol (A.A.C. – O.A.F.), also referred to as Académica de Coimbra or simply Académica, is an autonomous and professional football organization based in Coimbra, Portugal. The team was created inside of the students' union of the University of Coimbra – the Associação Académica de Coimbra, during a period of changing in the 1970s and 1980s, when football was professionalized in Portugal. But its foundation as a students amateur sports association backs to 1876, so it is effectively one of the oldest sports institutions in Portugal. The club is claimed by its fans to be the fourth in number of supporters (after Benfica, Sporting Clube de Portugal and FC Porto). It is a sports club emotionally and historically related to the university life, so through generations, many students, even those born in farther regions, became lifelong supporters of the team. In general, much of the city's population identifies itself as Académicas' fans or sympathisers. The main football team uses the Estádio Cidade de Coimbra (specially rebuilt and modernized for the UEFA Euro 2004) with 30,000 seats. The Associação Académica de Coimbra, the mother institution of the professionalized A.A.C. – O.A.F. autonomous football organisation, has several sports branches performing under the same AAC logo and using the same black colors, being effectively one of the largest sports clubs of Portugal. The Associação Académica de Coimbra – O.A.F. has also a futsal department (Associação Académica de Coimbra – O.A.F. (futsal)). In 1938–39, the football team became the first winner of the Portuguese Football Cup, a feat they would repeat in 2011–12. In the 2012-2013 season, Académica qualified for the group stage of the Europa League for the first time.