The House of Sport Lisboa e Benfica in Macau (; ), simply known as Benfica de Macau, is a Macanese professional football club that currently competes in the Liga de Elite. The club plays its home games at the Macau Olympic Complex Stadium.
Benfica de Macau have won six league titles and three Taça de Macau cups.
History Benfica de Macau was founded on 17 October 1951, as the House No. 232 of S.L. Benfica.
On 21 August 2016, Benfica de Macau defeated Guam club Rovers 4–2 in a 2017 AFC Cup Play-off qualifier in Bishkek. It was the first win ever for a Macanese club in any AFC competition.
In 2018, Benfica de Macau became the first Macanese club to participate in the AFC Cup group stage. On 7 March 2018, Benfica won 3–2 against Taiwan's Hang Yuen, becoming the first Macanese club to win an AFC group stage match.
After a six-year title drought, Benfica de Macau secured the 2024 season league title, positioning the club to qualify for the second edition of the newly established third-tier continental tournament, the AFC Challenge League. However, systemic infrastructure issues within local football had already complicated the territory's regional standing; during the competitive season in June 2024, club president Duarte Alves expressed major frustration over the ongoing exclusion of Macanese clubs from AFC tournaments, publicly citing the tightening, increasingly rigid criteria imposed by the Asian Football Confederation on amateur and semi-professional structures.
Alves specifically highlighted that mandatory club demands: such as operating independent financial audits, employing specialized coaching staff with an AFC "A" license, and maintaining robust multi-tier youth academies,remained largely out of reach due to a systemic lack of local government funding and developmental interest in football compared to other heavily sponsored, large-scale sporting events in Macau. This ongoing structural bottleneck ultimately meant that despite securing the 2024 championship, the club failed to obtain the mandatory AFC Club License. This left the territory's top clubs entirely excluded from the subsequent AFC Challenge League tournament cycle for the second consecutive year, mirroring the prior administrative issues that had previously hindered the association's teams in past competitive eras.
Continental history Season Competition Round Club Home Away Position2016AFC CupQualifying Round Alga Bishkek0–23rd Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi1–42017AFC CupQualifying Round Rovers4–22nd Dordoi Bishkek1–22018AFC CupGroup I Hang Yuen3–24–12nd Hwaebul SC3–03–2 April 250–20–8
Players Current squad for the 2026 Liga de Elite
Honours League Liga de Elite Champions (7): 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020 , 2024
Cup Taça de Macau Champions (4): 2013, 2014, 2017, 2025 Runners-up (3): 2015, 2023, 2024
References
External links
Website: www.benficamacau.com