Liga Intercalar, What is It?

This year Benfica will participate in another competition on the senior level, that competition is the Liga Intercalar. What is the Liga Intercalar you might ask? Well the Liga Intercalar is nothing but a supplementary competition to domestic competition. Not all teams from the Liga Sagres compete in the Liga Intercalar, as the competition currently only involves two associations, Porto and Lisbon.

As far as i know, the Liga Intercalar was born last year as an initiative of the AF Porto, this year the AF Lisboa got involved and the competition will be divided in the two zones, until the grand final.

The competition involves teams from the 3 different flights of Portuguese futebol, with the only prerequisite being that the team must be affiliated with the conresponding A.F.

There will be a total of 15 teams participating in this years competitions, 9 from the north, 6 from the south. The competition's model will not interfere with the rest of the domestic competitions as the games will all take place on wednesday afternoons.

The purpose of the Liga Intercalar is to give the less used players and young budding talent an opportunity to showcase themselves to the training staff. The Liga Intercalar is also a great way to get your players competitive rhythm after they have been out with injuries. The competition is divided in two tournaments - Winter and Spring, and will follow the home and away format for both.
First place and second place teams from both tournaments will be found and will enter a playoff, the winner of each zone playoff will meat for the grand final, where the national champion will be found.

North Zone teams:
Freamunde, Feirense, Varzim, Desportivo das Aves, Porto, Boavista, P. Ferreira, Gondomar and Leixoes

South Zone teams:
Benfica, Sporting, Mafra, Torreense, Belenenses and Estrela da Amadora.

There's no word on what roster will be part of tomorrow's game, and don't count on it being televised. There's a chance that David Luiz will be in action though. Perhaps a good opportunity for Moretto, Zoro, Fellipe Bastos and Mantorras to shine also.

I have the complete winter schedule up on my google calendar.

The competition's site