I was just thinking this to myself today,and i was thinking do we as Portuguese people and the Portuguese super liga get no respect from anyone else?Like i know we dont have as much money as some teams out there but come on players not wanting to come to Benfica,Sporting or Porto teams that are in Europe to teams that are mid table-relegation area team.Do you think this liga has absolutly gets no respect from anyone else?Like even friendly games teams that play against us put in their"less talented"players against ours and think they can easily beat us.I dont know it just seems that way to me,if people dont like this thread then i am sorry its just my opinoin that we dont get much respect in Europe and from other Leagues.We get rediculous offers from teams like Miguel for 2 million by Juventus.Like come on wtf is that they think were dumb or something?I dont know really,sorry i just needed to get a couple things off my chest really
The answer for the most part is NO. We go to finals year after year on so many levels: UEFA CUP - Porto Champions League - Porto Euro 2004 - Portugal UEFA Cup - Sporting FIFA Beach Soccer - Portugal Toulon Tourney - Portugal and we are still a 2nd tear country.
It comes down to two things really - money and visibility - for players. Players typically want both - but they will settle for one. Lets face it - the Superliga, competitive as it is, doesn't offer a player stability in terms of team finances (apart from Porto of course), nor does it offer a player visibility. The Superliga will never become a top-tier league, but it is on the road to becoming the force of the tier-two leagues - Bundesliga, French Ligue, Dutch league. All it has to do is continue to be fiscally responsible, find investors, and start to develop players within their own country instead of spending 3 to 5 times that amount to sign a South American or African player that won't pan out.
As a non-portuguese I can tell you this, recently they have done well, but it takes 20 years for Portugal to win a champs league and a UEFA cup. Every 20 years they win, hardly anywhere near the 1st tear countries. Between Champs Leagues (Porto in 1986 and Porto in 2003), how many Italian teams and Spanish teams won? Also in UEFA cup, Italy won something like 5 or 6 in a row and Spanish won or went to the final a couple of times but Portual won in 2002, then when did they win? In the past few years they are doing well, but as history repeats itself you will have to wait another 15-20 years to win again.
You are right, but you could have had this same argument in 1990 or 1991. Benfica went to back to back finals, Porto won champs league a few years prior. Then what happened, nothing until 2002. That is the problem, they dont have enough to compete EVERY year like Spain and Italy. Portugal has been better than England over the past 20 years which has been unbelievable, but very hard for them to compete with Italy and Spain as it all comes down to money.