Ponta Delgada Football Association

A committee from the Club Sport Marítimo on a visit to the island of São Miguel

A plaque dedicated to the Marquess of Jácome Correia, a key supporter of socio-cultural activities of the island

The foundation of the Football Association began with the growth of many social and cultural institutes and organizations, unrelated to organized sport. One was the Ateneu Comercial de Ponta Delgada (Commercial Athenaeum of Ponta Delgada) at the edge of celebrating its first century of existence, and that inherited a voluminous and well-elaborated place in the society and culture.[1] The Associação de Socorros Mútuos União e Trabalho which began in the last century, and helped to motivate public training, that formed schools, including one in Lagoa.[1] The Sociedade Promotora de Instrução e Recreio (Society for the Promotion of Training and Recreation), who had a century of existence, but which eventually ceased, providing an important role in the social context, during the many festivals and cultural activities.[1]

Within the Ateneu Comercial functioned the Associação Auxiliadora do Ensino Industrial e Comercial (Auxiliary Association of Commercial and Industrial Training) taught by professors António Maria Lopes (Portuguese) and Urbano de Arruda Carreiro (Accounting).[1] Further, there was the commercial course of the Associação dos Empregados do Comércio e Indústria do Distrito Oriental dos Açores (Association of Commercial and Industrial Employees of the Eastern District of the Azores), which ended in the middle of the 20th century, when the Escola Industrial e Comercial de Ponta Delgada (Industrial and Commercial School of Ponta Delgada) began to operate, under the direction of Governaor Rafael Sérgio Vieira, at the Solar Jácome Correia (later site of the Roberto Ivens Secondary School).[1]

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Liga Micaelense de Instrução Pública (Micalense League of Public Instruction) founded by Aires Jácome Correia, then Marquess of Jácome Correia, operated unnoticed, if not for the acts of the Ponta Delgada Cultural Institute.[1] One of the two initiatives, that were generously financed, was the Escola Industrial de Rendas de Bilro (Industrial School of Rendas de Bilro), which survived, with the activities of female youth in the 1930s (along a building of Rua do Brum).[1] Also around this time, at the end of 1911 and beginning of 192, was the celebrated Sociedade Promotora da Agricultura Micaelense (Promotional Society of Micalense Agriculture), with many meetings at the building along Alameda Duque de Bragança, seat of the Meteorological Observatory Afonso de Chaves for more than 50 years.[1] Dating from 1843, this organization had its agricultural garden, that later were sold off to João Augusto Carreiro de Mendonça, along Rua Diário dos Açores, later the Banco Comercial dos Açores offices.[1]

It was in the Sociedade Promotora da Agricultura Micaelense, Sociedade Promotora da Instrução e Recreio and the Sociedade dos Amigos das Letras e das Artes, founded in 1884 by António Feliciano de Castilho, that fomented the associative movement of São Miguel, managing several initiatives and, ultimately, founding other organizations, sport clubs and the need to form a football association in Ponta Delgada.[1]

Member clubs include:

• Clube Desportivo Santa Clara – Ponta Delgada – Primeira Liga
• Clube Operário Desportivo – Lagoa – Segunda II Divisão
• Capelense Sport Clube – Capelas – Terceira Divisão
• Clube União Micaelense – Ponta Delgada – Terceira Divisão
• Santiago Futebol Clube – Água de Pau – Terceira Divisão
• Sporting Clube Ideal – Ribeira Grande – Terceira Divisão
• Águia Clube Desportivo – Arrifes – District (Distritais)
• Clube Desportivo Rabo de Peixe – Rabo de Peixe – District (Distritais)
• Futebol Clube Vale Formoso – Furnas - - District (Distritais)
• Grupo Desportivo São Roque – Ponta Delgada – District (Distritais)
• Grupo Desportivo Bota Fogo – Ponta Garça – District (Distritais)
• Mira Mar Sport Clube -Povoação – District (Distritais)
• Vitória Clube do Pico da Pedra – Pico da Pedra – District (Distritais)
• União Desportiva do Nordeste – Nordeste – District (Distritais)
• Clube Desportivo Santo António – Ponta Delgada
• Clube Desportivo Santo António Nordestinho – Nordeste
• Maia Clube dos Açores – Maia, Ribeira Grande
• Marítimo Sport Clube – Ponta Delgada

The AF Ponta Delgada runs the following division covering the fifth tier of the Portuguese football league system.

• Capelense Sport Clube
• Clube Desportivo Rabo de Peixe
• Clube Desportivo Santa Clara
• Futebol Clube Vale Formoso
• Grupo Desportivo Bota Fogo
• Grupo Desportivo de São Roque
• Mira Mar Sport Clube
• União Desportiva de Nordeste

• Portuguese District Football Associations
• Portuguese football competitions
• List of football clubs in Portugal

Notes

Sources

• AFPD, ed. (14 July 1997), "Intervenção do Sr. Jorge do Nascimento Cabral, aquando do 79º Aniversário da A.F.P.D.: Subsídios para a História da A.F.P.D.", Jornal Oficial (in Portuguese), Ponta Delgada (Azores), Portugal: Associação de Futebol de Ponta Delgada, no. 26, Série I
• "Futebol Total – Ponta Delgada". Retrieved 2012-04-09.