The Top Flight Football Club With No Fans

[@diogofilipe29]

There's a LOT of issues with football here in Portugal if i'm honest. This is one of them: most people here support one of the big 3 so a lot of stadiums end up being pretty much empty, Arouca isn't alone in this. Sure, there's a few exceptions, Famalicão, Braga, Vitória Guimarães and Boavista get fairly good support along with the big 3, but the rest are almost left for dead. Whenever a smaller team like Arouca plays one of the big 3 at home it's basically a home game for the away side. There's also this weird thing that a lot of the smaller teams that get into Europe not only don't even reach the group stage but also end up getting relegated. Arouca went down the last time they were in europe and are bottom now, Paços Ferreira went down after losing to Spurs, Rio Ave took AC Milan to penalties a few years ago and went down that same year, Santa Clara also went down after qualifying for Europe and this is just to name a few. Football in Portugal is broken in many ways and it doesn't seem like it's going to improve any time soon

[@bentn13]

(Portuguese but don't follow with such detail), are the teams that qualify for Europe losing their players in the off season?

[@salomaoparreira5669]

@@bentn13 It's also more due to the fact that the teams are higly unstable. be it due to not being able to afford UEFA football, or very poor and inconsistent football projects, the teams that aren't the big 3 or Braga, Guimarães or (maybe) Famalicão are always a losing streak away from crisis and relegation

[@ricardoj3456]

Absolutely true. Vizela , Marítimo and Farense also had a good suport. But the rest is very poor.

[@bernardojjjose]

@@bentn13partly, yes, especially if european football is completely unexpected. Most clubs just don’t have the resources to keep their playing squad consistent when they over achieve

[@goncalosoares9255]

Adding to this great comment The fact that you need a minimum of 5k seats in your stadium to be in the primeira liga here makes no sense Moreirense play in a stadium that is bigger than the total population of Moreira de conogos where they play….

[@alvaropunhal]

Boavista fan here (an absolute chaos club if you ever decide to do another video on the Primeira Liga). Portuguese football fan mentality is very different from what you find in England, Germany, the Netherlands, or even Spain. The "big 3" have complete hegemony over portuguese football, not only trophy wise, but in everything regarding the football landscape. In Portugal you're either a Porto, Benfica or Sporting fan, regardless of where you live. There is almost no loyalty to local clubs. There are some exceptions (the biggest one being Guimarães), but the overwhelming majority of fans will support one of the big clubs. Even when they do support a local team (Arouca for example), they'll usually do it as a second choice to their "big club". An Arouca fan may bring their Arouca FC scarf to a game against Rio Ave, and show up in full Porto kit in the away stand whenever they play against them. This might sound insane, but it's very common and widely accepted over here. You'll find Benfica stores over 300km away from Lisbon, in cities with Primeira Liga clubs, whose stands stand empty week after week. Fans will rather drive hundreds of kilometres and watch Benfica or Porto at home, than to walk to their local stadion. That is, unless they play Benfica or Porto (or Sporting), then the stands will be full of local fans all dressed up in away colours. The football shows on the telly, all the pundits, everything caters only to the "big 3". The highlights for their matches run for hours and are analysed to the most insignificant detail, while the highlights for all other Primeira Liga are either mushed together and rushed in a couple of minutes, or are ignored altogether. Being a fan outside of the "big 3" is extremely rare. People look at me funny when I say I'm a die hard Boavista fan because nobody expects you to support one of the "little teams". It's also important to note that no team, except for Braga, can come close to even start to compete with the "big 3". Boavista's budget for example, like the one for most Primeira Liga clubs, is equivalent to that of a League 1 or 2 club in England. How are you supposed to compete with Champions League clubs? All of that, the portuguese football fan mentality, the complete hegemony, propaganda and reach of the "big 3", and the huge chasm between the "big 3" (and now Braga) and the rest, is what contributes to clubs like Arouca having no fans whatsoever. Thanks for making a video on our farmers league, hope to see more in the future!

[@lee5010]

Thanks for all the information i have been a Boavista fan for s long time i'm from the UK. It's sad that it is this way in Portugal i hope one day to be able to come to a game at Estádio do Bessa.

[@pellejohansen]

Braga does have quite a few fans to right?

[@pmlbeirao]

Football is in many ways a reflection of a country's culture and politics. Portugal has been a politically centralized country for centuries with very little regional autonomy or assertiveness.

[@leprosodalapa4171]

As a Vitória SC fan myself I couldn't agree more, and the sad part is that the "big 3" hegemony only tends to get bigger and bigger. Thank god that are still cases like my club and Boavista, whose strong core of loyal fans make up one of the best and most beautiful rivalries in the country

[@yousandro1999]

they have finally a decent fanbase because of their recent sucess in this century and younger generations in the city and surroundings started to support Sporting Braga, 20 years ago Braga was a city known for being dominated by Benfica fans@@pellejohansen but they are an exception in this matter, as most of this clubs that used to have decent fanbases like Belenenses, Boavista, Academica or Vitoria Setubal are getting smaller because younger generations are turning to one of the Big 3

[@nunocspinto]

About Arouca, they suffer from one of the harsh things in Portuguese: the tri-division of most football supporters between Porto, Benfica and Sporting. That makes local football less supported. Then, Arouca is in the middle of nowhere. It's very hard to arrive there, because that village is located in a valley under high hills, with one road in and one road out. It's hard to go there as an away fan. But this video is a great rundown of their reality and their story. Good video!

[@Micfri300]

My dad's town orsara have a team in the prima categoria(7th division) and get 300 people at games. I'm surprised that with cost of living crisis people are not going to their local teams instead. For example teams in puglia in serie C and D are regularly getting 3000 people plus for matches

[@miguellromao]

I think it would be perfectly reasonable for these clubs to position themselves as their locals' 2nd club and act accordingly. People support SLB or FCP, so what? If done well, why can't people support the likes of Arouca for the remaining 32 games? Or even go to those 2 games w/o a favourite for the win? At least I'd do so if I had one like that to support...

[@larsgrotjohann]

I studied in Faro and more and more students started cheering for the home team even though they were in the 2nd division. But it's true. Unfortunately, most Portuguese are FC Porto, Benfica or Sporting fans instead of supporting their home team.

[@chim6090]

⁠@@larsgrotjohannFaro is far from both Lisbon and Porto so it’s understandable that it has local support. The geograpical distribution is really interesting in Portugal as 11 teams are located max 50 km from Porto, 5 teams in and around Lisbon and then Farense and Portimoense in the south. For the smaller clubs around Porto and Lisbon support is very small as people root for the bigger teams

[@billy5402]

What a absolute bullshit excuse🤣 "ThErE iS oNlY oNe RoAd😢" i support a 4th division Scottish team the towns are alot smaller and far more remote but we are still there traveling up and down the country to watch our teams... Your all just cocksucking glory hunters that want to support the winners💀

[@polecoleco9317]

Arouca is a very sparcely populated town in the middle of nowhere, so it's not only hard for away fans to go there, but also going from surrounding villages to Arouca is a huge pain. I think that + the big 3 centralization in Portugal explain Arouca's situation, unfortunately don't think there's much that they can do to bring more people to the stadium. Really enjoyed the spotlight at the Portuguese league, I think a video about Belenenses/B-Sad would be very interesting!

[@dmur.]

I’m not 100% sure but I think he did a video on Belenenses maybe a year or 2 ago

[@oFelix20]

This comment deserves to be top. I have read that its mostly due to the portuguese people just supporting the big 2(or 3) but thats mostly due to the fact that Portugal working as districts and the good chunk of the portuguese population resides within said districts in which the best 2 teams in Portugal play in. Nonetheless there is still a big "family history" factor played into this where a lot of people grow up supporting a club that their grandparents/parents support.

[@SirAntoniousBlock]

_"A town that has been conquered by the Romans Moors and Christians but not by a universal love of FC Arouca"_ God this channel is brilliant. 😂

[@benhayward2597]

The biggest factor of all is that Arouca itself is in the middle of nowhere in Portuguese terms.

[@thagoddj]

Being Portuguese myself, and living quite near Arouca, I can say, it truly is magnificent to see someone actually mention the chaos that that club has been for the past couple of years... Keep up the great work Alfie 👌👌

[@RicPTAE86]

Onde é que vives?

[@Racer21teixeira]

I live there in Arouca

[@diomuda7903]

I think you can take a slight talk about Alireza Faghani, one of Iran’s greatest referees, but now he has become a political refugee for supporting Mahsa Amini protests. The 2026 WCQ in Asia will be his first time to officiate no longer under Iran after he agreed to represent Australia.

[@The_Steampunk_Fox]

I think that would make a solid video

[@pedluc2010]

Thank you so much for this video Alfie. Many portuguese teams have incredible stories (looking at casa pia or gil vicente recently, both first division right now, or uniao de leiria (Mourinho was there, now finally second again) but not even the Portuguese know the stories, because the top 3/4 get all, and I mean all, the attention. Regarding viewrship, you could do this with many portuguese teams. Maybe a video on the attendance levels in Portugal in general could be interesting?

[@Fistrike]

Also there's the story of the resurrection of teams like estrela da amadora and os belenenses

[@dmur.]

I used to go mad when Benfica, arguably the biggest of the big 3, used to average maybe 30k at a game and the stadium looked empty and it was only maybe 4/5 years ago

[@davidribeiro1064]

@@dmur. Imagine what it's like foe those of us that remember the Artur Jorge and following years, when average attendance was less than 20 000 at a stadium with double the size.

[@bernardojjjose]

And also thank you for putting a spotlight on Portuguese Football, Alfie. A lot of the struggles Arouca has are felt by a lot of clubs in Portugal, even in the first division. If I could suggest any video on Portuguese football it would be explaining how the big 3 got quite so big, it’s a super interesting story spanning more than one sport, and understanding that also helps understand the lack of fans around the league

[@mcdonalds5972]

In Australia, the champions of 2021/22 Western United played the cup winners of 2021/22 Macarthur (three weeks after their victory). Now, you'd think the two champions, on a Friday night, in a 30000 seater stadium, would be a huge draw, right? The attendance was 2423. They're both recent expansion clubs. Western United doesn't even have their home stadium.

[@DynoKea]

Complete wrong choice in expansion was the issue as they stuck brand new clubs in Sydney and Melbourne which already have 2 sides each so the supporters already had a side. Plus support in Australia is generally low and falling due to consistent A-League blunders (not to mention away days are typically not a thing for fans) Edit: As for Western United they're suppose to be building one as that was part of their bid. It's just taking a long time.

[@arooney27]

the a-league needs to stop giving new clubs to states that already have some of the biggest clubs in the country. melbourne especially has one of the most succesful clubs in a-league history and the richest club already. they need to bin macarthur and western united and replace them with clubs in states that dont have a club in the a-league, like tasmania or the northern-territories.

[@RachelTurner81]

yeah it's braindead. new expansion teams announced in Canberra and NZ, much more sensible choices

[@soundscape26]

Oh my... Arouca got a full length video on HITC Sevens. Highest point in their history. 😄

[@diogorodrigues4928]

your highest point in history is that bridge

[@unkempttrim1538]

As a Porto fan, I remember last year going to watch Porto face against Arouca where we won 5-1 as well as a Taremi hat trick. When Arouca scored, coz I was sat next to the away stand I saw like only around 20-30 arouca fans. Like I didn’t even realise they were in the stand till they scored.

[@VenomTNT]

Infelizmente o nosso tugão é assim... Saudações benfiquistas

[@ruipinho5387]

​@@VenomTNTinfelizmente o Tugao é assim.... apoiam os 3 pinheiros e não o clube da terra

[@diogorodrigues4928]

o boi mas quando empataste com o arouca em casa estavam caladinhos

[@ryanevans126]

U guys have us in champions league im a arsenal fan be a good match u reckon u could beat us and who should we look out for for Porto who there best player

[@VenomTNT]

@@ryanevans126 their best players are definitely goalkeeper Diogo Costa, the winger Pepê, and a midfielder called Alan Varela. Pepe is also still good but obviously is super old now. Taremi used to be incredible but has been quite bad this season

[@alexpreston1133]

Cool to see coverage of Portuguese clubs, you should take a look at the story of CF Os Belenenses, one of two clubs outside the big 3 to ever win the league and 5th in all-time league table. They had the professional team controversially bought away several years ago and turned into B-SAD. Since then Belenseses in phoenix-club style have gained 5 consecutive promotions from the 7th tier to now this year playing in the 2nd division, while simultaneously the much hated B-SAD have suffered two straight relegations from the 1st down to the 3rd tier

[@franciscoricca8309]

Belenenses now holds the record for the most consecutive promotions ever! That story would very interesting!

[@16cellito]

The B-sad doesnt exist anymore... they were trying Last year to join Cova da Piedade and fuse together with them but they were not allowed because both clubs were lacking funding

[@noahdoherty8]

Love the content Alf but don’t you think you’ve made enough videos about Man City

[@nont18411]

Man City has fans though. It’s just 90% of them were once Man United fans.

[@SociallyIneptInvertebrate]

​@@nont18411proud to be in the 10% then, never supported rhat rubbish.

[@craigmullen9046]

I knew all the wankers would be out commenting drivel!! When I seen the title

[@slayingroosters4355]

​@@SociallyIneptInvertebrateI've been a city fan for the last 29 years and haven't met one converted United fan (since the money came in) 💀

[@nananou1687]

​@@slayingroosters4355i am a City fan and I've met loads mate.

[@gui18bif]

To be honest, Arouca is such a small place, with a very old popularion - that I'm even impressed that they have fans

[@diogorodrigues4928]

vai fazer musica de merda para abrantes

[@hugoumero9723]

@@diogorodrigues4928 jeez you must hate abrantes peoples for support big 3 and braga instead of support the local club

[@nunorb83]

Living in Aveiro, i can confirm that the municipal stadium is almost abandoned and its a shame for the money spent in it... Beira mar club now plays in the 3rd tier of portuguese football, after a series of failed take overs and mismanagent...

[@IOFIsickness]

You can allways go and support beira mar or other Aveiro club instead of one of big 3.

[@VitorSantos-jo4qz]

O beira mar joga na quarta divisão! Próximo domingo dia 3 tem jogo no EMA!! Bora lá apoiar a equipa da nossa cidade! 💛🖤

[@joaots2571]

Arouca is a small village in the middle of mountains with a small population. Attendances are low (transfermarkt data has some mistakes) because we don’t have many away fans (not the best location and few transportation) and local fans are few but that’s the best we can do considering the population and ticket prices. Note: The stadium is municipal (public) not owned and until 2018 Arouca was the only 1 Division team without debt.

[@Speeder76]

Portuguese here: First: Great job, Alfie! Second: a small story about Arouca. In 2006, I was an intern in RTP Portugal, in Porto, and Arouca was in 5th tier, in Aveiro FA, but was in the lead, going to win and play on III Divisão. Their manager was Jorge Gabriel, a television presenter. Yes, you heard well: a morning show television presenter, with love for football - and a grade II coach license - and doing a good job. True story! About the portuguese football landscape, I think you would have enough stuff for, at least... 20 videos, even from my city club, União de Leiria, that last season decided that fans could see their games... for free! And they went from 500 to 21 thousand when they climbed to Liga 2. And they continue to let fans see their games for free, and if they go to Primeira Liga, they say that some of those games will be for free, except for the Big Three.

[@Ervilhaification748]

Bons tempos do grande mister Jorge Gabriel

[@paulofernandes7017]

Já me tinha esquecido que ele era treinador

[@bernardojjjose]

Arouca’s tale is a throwback to the old days of portuguese football, feeder club for one of the big three, a wealthy local businessman invests heavily in the club and leads them to great heights. Sadly, most of those clubs have now lost their status and sometimes ceased to exist

[@botondbakos5954]

Puskás Akadémia in Hungary is also a team with no fans. Like literally, they have around 10 fans and everybody else are away fans or get paid to come to their games or neutral fans

[@franze4]

he definitely needs to make a video about them 😮

[@maba1503]

I am sure he will, he really likes making vidoes about cases where politics and corruption arrives in football.@@franze4

[@robfortune6]

Are they in the top flight? This is about a top flight team specifically

[@joshualiley]

​@@robfortune6 Yes, they even played in European qualifiers for the last 3 seasons in a row

[@robfortune6]

@@joshualileyDamn, that sounds very interesting lol

[@lourencooliva7429]

Just a correction, the 15 km distance is from the limits of the Porto district, not the city itself. The distance to FCP stadium (near city limits) is about 60 km.

[@josousa78]

And Boavista is in Porto city, unlike Arouca wich is even Aveiro district

[@masterplokoon8803]

I remember when I was working in a bar in the summer and someone asked me if they could watch Arouca's conference league play off match. I said "no problem" and started to look for channel where the game would be broadcasted. I could never find not it, not even after searching on the internet, I spoke with my boss and he said that nobody in Portugal had bothered to buy the rights to broadcast that game because almost nobody cared.

[@Eainessabodega]

Great video as per usual, you really hit the crucial points and as people in the comments said, there is basically a 3 way split in terms of being fan of a team in Portugal between SLB, SCP and FCP. Vitória SC (de Guimarães), and Braga also have very solid support base. Some old big teams have stumbled like Belenenses and Vitória FC (de Setúbal). Finally there are some teams that have a loyal following such as Famalicão, but the attendances in stadiums are super low, this is a norm across all divisions, not an exception; Arouca is simply a bit worst than most because it is a very isolated town. Also calling the Portuguese First League entertaining is a very large stretch, it is one of the leagues with the least minutes played, it has a lot of little fouls that interrupt the flow of the game, and the games do tend to be VERY TACTIC with a lot of low scoring games being the norm. It has improved significantly in the last 3-4 years due to the influx of the newer generation of managers and players, but it is not a very attacking league in general.

[@biking-viking-claus-andersen]

Great report mate. In some ways it's understandable that Arouca has very few fans, as the town is in the middle of nowhere and very sparsely populated. The ultimate team to have no one watching must be Estoril. They are located in a wealthy Lisbon suburb, where almost everyone can easily afford to be season ticket holders. But the stadium is completely empty on every game, unless they play Benfica or Sporting, who everyone in Estoril supports.

[@martinottesen1053]

One of Arouca's international opponents, SK Brann, is also a very interesting story, and i would love to see a video on it someday

[@philipriley2253]

Wasn't expecting Hyde United to get a mention in a video about Arouca in Portugal. Ewan Fields just round the corner from me & they average around 5 or 600, occasionally they get around 1,000 for local Derby, they do make a reasonable noise though..

[@9EscFan5]

My Dutch local team has a similar number of citizens, but they are newly promoted to the 5th level in the Netherlands.

[@Alfie_1]

I could understand 3 away fans for a game against Santa Clara in the Azores, but I must say, 3 is really impressively bad.

[@damiano_viviano]

Similar thing could happen in Croatia with Zrinski Osječko (until 2023 Zrinski Jurjevac) where club from the village of 150 people was taken over by the brewery owner (Osječko is brewery in the name of the club). They went from completely amateur divisions to 2nd division where they are currently 1st with their owner pumping a lot of money in the club planning to make it to the 1st tier. Now, the really bizzare thing about this team apart from taking over the small village club and getting it promote to 1st tier, is that their is plan to relocate it from eastern region of Croatia to the center of country and to its capital Zagreb because of the better youth recruitment availability. Considering they are from really small place they don't really have proper fanbase and with the club thinking about moving to Zagreb where support for Dinamo rules supreme they are ought to get even less fans, if any. All in all, their eventual faith might as well be same as Aroucas, club which is kept alive by a single person and which could suffer from their players being taken every single season and yo-yoing beetwen divisions with no fanbase to cap it all up.

[@markodon1000]

Well, not to mention that there are already top division teams from Zagreb that already suffer from the same problem, the most glaring example being Lokomotiva (similar average attendance to Arouca).

[@vjekobasic7059]

I live 15 km from Jurjevac, and I gotta admit that I didn't see it going this far. Now that NK Osijek has moved to a new stadium, Zrinski moved into their old stadium (Gradski vrt). Although Osječko brewery is profitable, I predict Zrinski will end up as the same as all other clubs that have been artificially pumped with money.

[@fanis6dd]

Always love to see high-quality videos about portuguese football. There's a million great stories to tell about football in this country so would love to see more videos Alfie!

[@finlayharrison8690]

You’ve used a couple of photos of the Estoril team here (who wear the same colours) instead of Arouca - but I only point that out as an avid Estoril fan who has wanted to see you make a video on us for ages😅. Portuguese domestic leagues are full of mad stories like these. Would be interesting to see you do more videos on it!

[@wilstewart5743]

I am British and live in Sweden. I support ifk goteborg and often go to games of Utsiktens bk who play in the second tier. They have fought all season long for promotion to the top tier despite having an audience of usually less than 600. Like you can’t find any online presence of this fans support and despite that they may get into the top tier in Sweden

[@joso7228]

Here you are - the Online Fans Support

[@wilstewart5743]

@@joso7228 glad to see you exist. I hope you beat GAIS and make it to Allsvenskan next year!

[@AS19Motorsport]

Little update on Arouca’s current situation for anyone interested: they went on a good run right after this video was released and are now seventh with 2/3rds of the season completed. Not bad for a team that was in the relegation zone earlier

[@Duda3000]

Thank you Alfie. Since you already started to uncover the Portuguese league, maybe you should talk abou the "brilliant" investment of Portugal in the Euro 2004, where Leiria, Beira Mar, Algarve (no club) and Académica had to have staidiums WAY bigger than the supporters they ever had. Just to host those 2 games in the Euro 2004. These 3 don't even compete in the 1st portuguese league anymore and even when they were.... they could never fill half of it unless they play against the big 3. Cheers

[@lourencooliva7429]

The truly stupid ones are in Aveiro (the worst, in the middle of nowhere) and Leiria. Every other Euro with 16 teams (1996, 2000, 2008 and 2012) used 8 stadiums, so a stadium in the Algarve and one in Coimbra would always be used. The location of Faro/Loulé is surely questionable instead of the old Faro stadium place. Coimbra location is great but the 30.000 capacity should be reduced like they did in Leiria and the Algarve. In terms of cost the Braga stadium was an insane choice despite all the architectural style.

[@DanielSanchezOjalvo]

Isnt the Algarve Stadium used every year for the Algarve cup? I mean it is probably one of the most important stadiums in the history of womens football

[@lourencooliva7429]

@@DanielSanchezOjalvo it hosts a few events (sometimes the Super Cup is also there) and serves as a winter training ground for teams from Northern Europe, but there isn’t a truly regular use (Farense uses its traditional stadium which is small but much better placed). Gibraltar used it as national stadium for some time when Victoria Stadium was being renovated. Aveiro is in a much worse state, I really think it should demolished. It’s a shame because the local club (Beira-Mar) was very traditional and would draw good numbers to their old pitch in the city centre.

[@davidribeiro1064]

​@@DanielSanchezOjalvocurrently it's the home stadium for the Gibraltar national team.

[@davidribeiro1064]

​@@lourencooliva7429wait it's no longer the Stadium for Gibraltar?

[@maba1503]

You could have made this video about Puskás Akadémia too. Its a club which owned by the starwman of the prime minister (and his party). The club has a 4000 seat stadium, in a village with the population of 1700. They sometimes pay for pepole to attend their games, although they try to this fact, there were plenty ocasions in the past when the try to recruit "fans" for their games on social media (like in closed facebook groups). And one more important info, the avarage viewership at their games is very low compared to other first division teams, most of the fans at their home games are the fans of visitors.

[@SilliusSodus]

Did a player career with Arouca on FIFA a while ago. Didn’t know they had as many fans as Man City.

[@calamorta]

Man City currently has 95 seasons in the top flight, just 4 behind Man Utd. They also relegated Man Utd once. Ofc they have less fans than Man Utd, but the same gloryhunters who picked Man Utd are also picking Man City now and in the future their fanbase will be much larger.

[@SilliusSodus]

@@calamorta let me be shameless in peace 💀

[@aminzulkarnain6852]

Kuala Lumpur City in Malaysia's top flight only averages 1,920 fans in their 11 home league matches this season 🙂

[@LazarouDave]

Also, it's rare how often I hear Burton getting mentioned when not discussing League One - they just happen to be catching strays in this case 😂😭

[@ottomanosman2463]

For once, I thought you would have mentioned Istanbul Basaksehir but now I realised Basaksehir even has more fans than Arouca.

[@maciejbala477]

he made an entire video on them. Though if you're Turkish, I think it was blocked in Turkey or something lol

[@VitorSantos-jo4qz]

24:38 please make a video about Beira-mar 💛🖤 and our recent history!! Much love from Aveiro, Portugal!!!

[@collapsiblechair9112]

Stories like this is why football is awesome and videos like this is why your channel is awesome too

[@salomaoparreira5669]

I think one of the biggest problems that plague the league is the division of television revenue. The fact that Benfica can show their own games is just an example of the disparity of the league. The big clubs get the most, the smaller clubs have to get by however they can. And if a team outside the big clubs has a good season, like Arouca, or Paços de Ferreira a few years back, they can't sustain that level because, at the end of the day, the league isn't made for them to have success: it's made for the big 3, and to see wich one of them wins the league this time. You see it in the coverage of the league, where most of the channels have at least 3 pundits, one for each club that "matters". Everyone else (except maybe Braga and Viitória de Guimarães) is there to make up space; their success is appreciated, but not supported because they have small fanbases. But that is a vicious cycle, because fans are not incentivized to follow their local teams.

[@bababababababa6124]

Thought this was a Man City video but I was pleasantly surprised

[@craigmullen9046]

I knew the wankers would be writing crap like this. Soon as I seen the title!!!

[@drunkenhobo8020]

To be honest I don't understand the Man City jibes. If they had loads of fans suddenly appear then they'd be called glory hunters. If they keep the same fan base then they have no fans.

[@bababababababa6124]

@@drunkenhobo8020cry more about it then, they have no fans in comparison to their success, that is literally indisputable

[@drunkenhobo8020]

@@bababababababa6124 "Cry more"? Grow up, please.

[@nealrigga6969]

@@drunkenhobo8020can’t lie it does look like you’re the one crying here from an outside perspective 💀

[@stiannss7775]

SK Brann mentioned!!! Would love for you to do a video on them, they have had a pretty interesting story the last couple years, from relegation to playing in Europe and looking like finishing second in the Eliteserie this year

[@GMan77477]

Was looking for a FM save. This will do nicely

[@o.nosaJ.o]

Great video would love to see one about GD Chaves

[@Cifesk]

Portimonense is the real Portuguese top-flight club with no fans. War between the supporters and the administration has lead to the team's ultras only supporting the club (B Team), as most Portuguese clubs are split between a "SAD" (sort of an investment fund) and the club. The club itself should own at least 51% of the SAD, and then the company that invests in it holding 49% or less; in Portimonense's case, the club only owns 15%, meaning there's a big difference between Portimonense SC (club, which owns the B team, formation up until U19s and other sports) and Portimonense SAD (professional football; main team and U23 formation). The ultras not supporting the professional football has also turned a lot of supporters away, most people from the city of Portimão aren't even Portimonense supporters anymore, as most people (fathers, grandfathers, whatever) don't teach their children to love the club anymore since they don't care for it either

[@leodomingox]

The biggest issue is how money flows on the Portuguese footballing structure. A club that had a good season is forced to sell to make stable financially situation. That's why you see most of the Portuguese teams going to European qualifications under performing comparing to the previous year. As for reference, there's stories of 2nd division clubs being amateur football clubs or not paying. Even with tv licenses it's impossible since the federation/ league are always in control and want most of the profits. Also something that was touched in this video. There's so many stupid regulations in regards to the stadiums capacities and so on. There's countless stories of clubs choosing no to go on into play a higher division of football simply because they cant upgrade their stadium. Besides that, was a good video to watch. I would say that there's a club worst they is Belenenses SAD with probably at most had like 50 people per game playing in the 1st division

[@ethanpower381]

Can you make a video on Sporting Fingal, a club that between 2007 and 2011 were founded, won the FAI Cup (Ireland's answer to the FA Cup) as a 2nd tier club, got promoted to Ireland's top flight in the same season, played in the Europa League against Maritimo and only lost 6-4 on aggregate, finished only 5 points off the top of the table in their 1st top flight season and then ceased to exist the next year.

[@AlexLusitania]

Very nice video, thank you for putting the spotlight on Portugal. This is a very common problem here unfortunately. Everyone just keeps supporting the Portuguese top 3: Benfica, Porto, Sporting. Then you have a bunch of clubs that actually have a good fanbase like Vitória and some others but most of our clubs (I'd say around 90%+ counting second tier) have basically less fans than any club in English fifth tier. This is not only an Arouca problem. NB: picture at 2:05 is Estoril, not Arouca.

[@foreignofficeclub5815]

As has been mentioned, outside the top 3 teams and to a lesser extent, Braga and Guimaraes, the rest get very little support. Another factor to this is thae every town and a lot of villages have sport clubs (bars and supporter) clubs for the 2 Lisbon clubs and to a lesser extent, Porto. It is insane.

[@flbui5960]

Awesome video.. I did not know about Arouca and you just told us the club's history...

[@DrZaius3141]

I'm amazed that you didn't even mention Hoffenheim, Leipzig or Salzburg in this video. The latter two because they did it right (regardless of what you think of the RB strategy, these clubs became mainstays in their respective leagues with a solid fan base) and the former because the club suffers from similar issues.

[@young_grizzly7948]

I had the same thought about Hoffenheim initially, their stadium is barely half full several times a season. Last season against Schalke, for example, it was sold out on paper, but more away fans were present than home fans. However, they are the only team from the Kraichgau region in the first two divisions, the closest top-flight team to them are Stuttgart and even that's a one-hour drive away. That gives them a bit of a catchment area for people who want to watch Bundesliga football nearby. It's not one domestic superclub attracting most of the potential fans, as is the case with Arouca. Also, since Hoffenheim receive so much resentment for their ownership model, they are extremely unlikely to ever win fans over from clubs with more history and tradition even if those clubs play in lower leagues, such as Kaiserslautern, Karlsruhe or even Waldhof Mannheim in the third tier.

[@james1english]

I go to watch every Rochdale home game. The most common chant I get to hear is 'Is this the library,' closely followed by 'we're taking over your town.' This is because we've got no fucking fans.

[@JozeP1973]

At 2.06 you inserted a pic from Estoril Praia not Arouca 😂. You may also want to check the B-Sad team which was on 1st division a couple of years ago with literally no fans. Probably the most hated club in Portugal.

[@kurbi7262]

Belenenses?

[@David-qq9bk]

@@kurbi7262 belenenses is a very respected former portuguese champion that returned this season to the segunda liga after having to come from the 7th tier. b-sad is NOT belenenses, they’re basically a company with a football team (fortunately they basically don’t exist anymore)

[@kurbi7262]

@@David-qq9bk Oh right i got them mixed up. Alfie should make a video on sad aswell

[@joaovazquez27]

Ive played at the old Arouca stadium so its funny to see it getting covered here, love the videos Alf, this was a nice surprise

[@lourencopedro1]

As a portuguese I loved the 26minutes of Alfie struggling to pronounce Arouca. Besides the banter, another bager video. Knowing Arouca was a feeder club for Porto is funny because the idea I have is that they're still too embroiled with the corrupt club up north.

[@MrRonald2796]

We are now suffering that Arouca didn't keep Walter González, the guy is literally a forward without goals, he has even missed scoring with open goals recently.

[@Trivaldo99]

‘Plans would make the stadium the seventh biggest in the primera liga behind the big three, BRAGA, Vitoria de Guimaraes and BRAGA’ 11:40 ish

[@samelmudir]

Boavista is the club he meant

[@HITCSevens]

Yes, swap one of the Bragas for Boasvista - my mistake!

[@woodside4life]

@@HITCSevens Don’t blame you. Braga’s stadium is so nice, you had to mention it twice.

[@ImDrewZ]

2:05 this is a photo from the club Estoril, Alf 😂👍

[@christodavison]

This video has had the reverse-reverse Midas effect. Arouca are storming up the Primeira Liga now😮

[@diogocosta238]

Oh boy this will be a long one. There are various reasons for this to happen and Arouca isn't the only club suffering from this in the country. I'm a Paços de Ferreira fan wich is located in a city with 50 000 more or less population. I think the club has a solid fanbase but I would be lying if I said 80% of the city didn't support either Benfica, Porto or Sporting. After supporting one of the "eucaliptos" as we call them here maybe they like Paços. A portuguese fan will also support a big club 300km away from where they live instead of their hometown club having never set foot on the stadium with no ties whatsoever to the big club because "sometimes they win". This happens all over the country (with a few exceptions) wich makes all the small clubs have less revenue in tickets, shirts, media coverage, etc and most importantly TV broadcasting money from the Federation. Money from games only goes to the big three and in my opinion the overall gap between small clubs and them keeps growing. Also the big three are nowhere interested in changing this scenario wich is having its own repercossion in other ways. Whenever you see these 3 clubs playing in european competitions they will lose many times and often to teams "smaller" that they weren't supposed to. Examples like Benfica being hammered by Real Sociedad and Sporting by Atalanta are very common in recent years. This happens because since there's no competition per se in the portuguese league and they play all year against weaker and weaker every year teams, when they face european teams that have a very competitive domestic league they get battered almost every time. You'll often hear chairman's saying they don't have the money to compete with other europeans and go far on european competitons. Portuguese are small minded, they will rather win their little league every year than to improve their teams and fight with other european teams for big competitions. So you'd think they'd wanna change that but no, not really. My biggest concern is that I don't see this changing for many years, in fact it's getting worse and portuguese football is ultimately doomed. Support your hometown club and be proud to be from wherever you are because that's your identity, that's who you are

[@simaoduarte8826]

As an Arouca fan, a resident of Arouca and a subscriber for years of your channel, I never thought that our incredible history would ever be here. There are lots of things that explain our lack of fans: our country, our village (not only being small, but also its localization and the lack of population), the fact that most of the portuguese people support Benfica, Porto or Sporting, and so on. Although we are a small club and have few fans, I love that even with all of the negative things affecting us, we can surprise everyone and achieve awesome things. You made a few mistakes with the photos and with the information, but I dont judge you, because even some portuguese people have difficulties on getting correct informations of our club. Thanks once again by telling our story and I apologise for any english mistake I could have made here.🟡🔵

[@quizzical2023]

Being a supporter of Bayer Leverkusen I still remember the time around the turn of the millenium when we were competing for the title and people were taking the piss for our sparse amount of fans with a stadium of just 22.500. Looking at Europe’s top clubs I am getting the feeling by today’s standard we count amongst the giants of European top-club football…

[@joecurrie2381]

Alfie can you do a video on Stockport and how crazy their last 15 years have been, now on a winning run of 10 league games in a row!

[@brunosurrador2161]

I mean Arouca has around 5000 people living in it. And here in Portugal pretty much 98% of the population supports Benfica, Sporting or Porto9

[@yanazbear]

sem contar que maioria dos arouquenses preferem apoiar os outros clubes do que o próprio Arouca ;-;

[@brunosurrador2161]

@@yanazbear isso é assim em praticamente todas as cidades ou vilas. Os únicos que não são assim são em Braga, Guimarães, Chaves, Coimbra, Varzim, nas ilhas, em Setúbal. Mas é tudo muito estarola. Eu próprio sou um pouco, sou da Amadora mas sou benfiquista de terceira geração

[@themodernviriato9383]

​@@brunosurrador2161Coimbra? Loool é quase tudo do Benfica lá infelizmente

[@kieronparr3403]

I have no idea where these video ideas come from but i love them

[@Robi2009]

That's why I subscribed to this channel: interesting stories about less known clubs or players 👍

[@ezraezra2928]

I noticed two big mistakes in this video: 1.In 2:06 and 17:44, these players are from Estoril. I thought it was Arouca, considering they have an identical kit layout, but Estoril's shocks are blue instead of Arouca's yellow. 2.In 11:42, you mention Braga twice. The other one should have been Boavista.

[@erdnasiul87]

É incrível ver a quantidade de tugas nos comentários deste canal. Como já foi dito, o grande problema do Arouca e de outras equipas semelhantes é o facto de haver pouco apoio dos adeptos locais. O futebol em Portugal é bastante assimétrico e clubes pequenos dependem muito da boa gestão e de boas épocas. Acontece muitas vezes que as equipas que se qualificam para a Europa pela primeira vez desçam na época ou épocas seguintes - já foi esse o caso do Rio Ave ou do Paços de Ferreira. Uma demonstração da fragilidades do futebol português como também é o facto de equipas históricas e capitais de distrito estarem hoje na segunda ou na terceira (Beira-Mar, Académica, União de Leiria, Vitória de Setúbal), a dificuldade de as equipas insulares se imporem ou equipas competitivas do Alto Douro, Beira Interior, Ribatejo e Alentejo serem uma miragem. Junte-se a isto equipas com grande apoio mas que se tiveram que refazer ou que parecem não conseguir sair da cepa torta - Belenenses, Leixões, Varzim - e que podiam perfeitamente encher estádios na primeira liga.

[@MatheusFernandes-xf4zm]

O campeonato português parece inflado, poderia ter 15 clubs ou menos, estou certo?

[@mohamedabdelkader8665]

Awesome to watch this channel.

[@iandawe948]

Tend to find. Your videos about obscure clubs. Much more interesting than the boring premiership

[@diogobarrote6960]

Excellent video and unexpected topic! But as a Portuguese I have to say that unfortunately there are many "Arouca's", that is, teams with few fans, since 95% of the population supports one of the Big 3. There's another story that I think deserves to be shared, Belenenses vs B SAD, which has some similarities to this one, since the original split of Belenenses in 2018 led to two different teams, and while the club team achieved five consecutive promotions from the non-league to the second division, the SAD team (of the investor) had two consecutive relegations and failed to register for competitions after an unsuccessful merger process. Meanwhile, it also holds the record for the worst attendance at a Primeira Liga match, just 298 spectators, even worse than Arouca!

[@c23st7]

Love how u chose a different player that played for UTA Arad as a picture displayed to talk about a former UTA player in Jeremie N'jock!

[@johanericsson7309]

Main reason I clicked was to see if there would be a Wealdstone Raider reference. I was not disappointed.

[@ChrisGallenx]

YES DO A VIDEO ABOUT BEIRA-MAR, Im from the Aveiro Region so this video means alot, my mom is actually one of the few fans Arouca has, since she was born and raised there, because of that I suport them when i can, the lost against Porto this season was though because a win would've help them get the spirits up, but the game was straight robbery and you can how demotivating that be

[@Akatsuki9119]

As a portuguese fella I highly recommend this educational and informative video on FC Arouca.

[@meepmeep3275]

Now they've just beat Porto and are seventh in the table... things change rapidly in Portuguese football

[@dudubatman7903]

I’m Portuguese and I had no idea of this, thank you🙏🏼

[@callumthornton2205]

The best way to start the day is coffee a nice breakfast and Alfie's voice while doing the dishes 😊

[@antonioguerreiro1615]

in Portugal it is more like "you have no mother your a bunch of test tube babies" Alfie does that count ??? in the case of FC Ponzi Scheme and Sporting Lisbon it is actually true 😂😂😂😂 Arouca is a gorgeous part of the world believe me

[@Copas99]

No benfica e so santos. Tanto que o vosso ex presidente foi jaulado

[@antonioguerreiro1615]

@@Copas99 E o vosso nao foi porque deve ter pago bem aos politicos..............um Portista a falar da alegada corrupcao de outros e a mesma coisa que um pedofilo a reclamar de pornografia.........voces sao sujos e todo o mundo sabe ..........FC ESQUEMA PONZI cafe com fruta etc etc etc, eu durante 9 anos lutei contra o LFV porque ele e sujo ............voces ao pinto da bosta ate lhe lambem os colhoes..........calado eras um poeta.se por acaso fores osga...............cashball que vos pariu, sapo ou porco............mesma mesma merda

[@Dagpar]

I renew my petition for you to include international subtitles for your videos. I volunteer for Spanish, but just having them would be great for me and my football-loving non-English speaking family.

[@Bogdy43]

The player at 09:02 isn't actually Jeremie N'Jock. He did play for the romanian club UTA Arad, but he did so around 2002. That photo is from last year and the guy pictured is called Joseph Godwin.

[@quarterpastbedtime]

After Arouca lost to SK Brann, I saw them at the airport going home. Some of the players were looking at a gaming laptop in a store at the airport. Never expected to watch an HITC video about them.

[@arthurmorgan825]

I am a arouca fan

[@nandinhocunha440]

As a Portuguese person. I support Sporting CP and I and many people we support our local club. Victoria Setubal were I hold that club in my heart

[@weedo4269]

Vitoria Futebol clube is my local team in portugal, it used to be a staple in the primeira liga but fell down to the 5 tier due to financial issues, in the las few years we went up to the 3rd but got koncked back to 4th, there were games last season where we fit almost 10k people there even now on the 4th tier home and away we allways show up but our oponents have usually very little fans

[@adamdickinson2894]

11:41 Braga's ground is so large it's actually bigger than this ground twice

[@nicolasmartin-minaret6157]

Hey Alf. Good job as usual! Just check your prononciation of Paços and Famalicão though

[@joso7228]

I stayed in CR7 Hotel in Madeira, his home island. In the Bar they were watching the Benfica game and me, Englishman, had to ask them to switch Channels to watch the local Maritimo game. And just in time for us to score the Winner! Sad really....

[@joso7228]

yes - it was lovely

[@pedluc2010]

5:06 just fyi, arouca is not in porto's district, but Aveiro's!

[@dronesclubhighjinks]

Thanks for the video! Did you end up winning the best football KZbinr award? regardless, keep doing what you're doing!

[@santorfo]

2:08 That's Estoril, not Arouca. 11:40 "trailing only the big 3, Braga, Vitória de Guimarães and Braga". I'm assuming one of the Braga mentions was supposed to be Boavista.

[@marcusfranconium3392]

No fans is one thing , no supporters is devastating . As supporters should be from your own town or region , family friends etc . Fans can come from any where . and like the style of football or how the club do things. Supporters much more important as they identify with the club.

[@BrunoRibeiro-po2bv]

Great video, just some incorrect photos, where you placed estoril in place of arouca

[@riquiffer]

Been in Arouca for the summer holidays this year, such a beautiful place

[@bureu]

Look no further for teams with minimal fan support than those in the Croatian First Division, as there are only TWO of them. NK Lokomotiva and NK Rudes are two such teams that maintain a personal connection with each of their fans. Both clubs are based in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, where the overwhelming majority of residents rally behind NK Dinamo. Interestingly, Zagreb is the only city in Central Europe without a city derby, as the other teams in the capital fail to garner much attention or support. Home games for both NK Lokomotiva and NK Rudes typically attract just under or over 1000 spectators. The atmosphere at these matches is remarkably dull, and when watching on TV, one can hear all communication between the bench and players on the pitch, as those few fans make absolutely no noise whatsoever. Furthermore, teams like NK Slaven and NK Gorica are scarcely performing better than those two from the capital, implying that nearly half of their First Division is struggling to surpass 1000 spectators per home game. The country that had its national team reach the semifinals in the last two World Cups is witnessing its league being neglected, with an infrastructure reminiscent of yesteryear. The success of their national team on the international level is nothing short of a miracle given the state of their league.

[@1vespa]

It lies in a very beautiful landscape, one of the most visited rural places in Portugal because of the 8km wooden walkway in the gorge of the Paiva river and the "516 bridge", a suspended 516 meter bridge over the Paiva gorge, the worlds longest pedestrian suspended bridge. Also local cuisine is very tasty with its local breed cows beef... but... it is a scarcely populated mountain isolated small town (21.146).. that's why they have little attendance. Anyway, the place worth a visit.

[@IOFIsickness]

Just so you have an idea, benfica is the most supported club in every district in portugal except Porto, our country is completely broken. Most teams play away games at home when facing benfica, i never seen something like this anywhere.