S.L. Benfica B

Benfica B

Full name	Sport Lisboa e Benfica "B"
Founded	1999–2006, 2012–
Ground	Caixa Futebol Campus
Ground Capacity	2,720
Owner	S.L. Benfica
President	Luís Filipe Vieira
Manager	Hélder Cristóvão
League	Segunda Liga
2014–15	6th
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours

Sport Lisboa e Benfica "B" is a Portuguese professional football team based in Seixal. Founded in 1999, dissolved in 2006, and restarted in 2012, it is the reserve team of S.L. Benfica. They play in the Segunda Liga, holding home games at the Caixa Futebol Campus.

During the 2012–13 season, they played the home games at the Estádio da Luz until February 2013, when they moved to Estádio da Tapadinha to prevent excessive wear of the stadium's grass. In 2013–14, Benfica B moved permanently to their own training ground now capable of receiving professional league matches. As a reserve team they cannot play in the same division as the main team, thus being ineligible for promotion. They are also not permitted to enter cup competitions such as the Taça de Portugal and Taça da Liga.

History

As Benfica sought a way to provide playing time for their youth players and reserves it created this B team in 1999, it officially started competing in the 1999–2000 season. After three seasons in the Portuguese Second Division, it suffered relegation to the Portuguese Third Division, where it would spend a further three years. The team achieved promotion to the Portuguese Second Division in 2005. In May of the following year, the board of directors extinguished the side, which returned to activity shortly after as part of the Liga Intercalar. As part of the Liga Intercalar, the club's best league position saw them finish second place behind Estoril B in the south zone of the 2010–11 season.

Before the end of the 2011–12 football season in Portugal, seven clubs in the Primeira Liga announced there interest in constructing a B team to fill the six vacant places available to compete in the Segunda Liga for the 2012–13 season. Of those seven, the six clubs which were selected to take part in the competition were the B teams of Benfica, Porto, Sporting CP, Braga, Marítimo and Vitória de Guimarães.

The LPFP who organizes the professional football tiers in Portugal announced that for the clubs to compete next season they would have to pay €50,000 to register themselves in the league. In addition the LPFP would also require the clubs to follow new rules regarding player selection in which each 'B' team must have a squad of a minimum of ten players who were formed at the club's academy as well as having an age requirement between 15 and 21 years old. The LPFP also went on to saw that the clubs are unable to compete in cup competitions as well as gaining promotion due to the possibility of playing the senior team. Each 'B' team may have 3 players above 23 years old.

In late May 2012, it was officially announced that the six Primeira Liga clubs' B teams would compete in the 2012–13 Segunda Liga which would increase the number of teams in the league from 16 to 22 as well as increasing the number of games needed to play in one season from thirty games to forty two games.

File:Benfica B v FCUM.jpg

Starting line-up of Benfica B for a friendly game against F.C. United of Manchester in May 2015.

In 2014, they were invited to play in the Premier League International Cup. On 29 May 2015, Benfica B played a friendly against F.C. United of Manchester in Broadhurst Park's official opening match.

Season to season

Season	Division	Place
1999–00	III	13th
2000–01	III	9th
2001–02	III	18th
2002–03	IV	3rd
2003–04	IV	5th
2004–05	IV	1st
2005–06	III	11th
2012–13	II	7th
2013–14	II	5th
2014–15	II	6th

• 3 seasons in Segunda Liga
• 4 seasons in Portuguese Second Division
• 3 seasons in Portuguese Third Division

Honours

• Portuguese Third Division

• Winners: 2004–05

Players

Current squad

As of 9 January 2016

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 8 MF Bilal Ould-Chikh 10 MF Marvin Loría 14 DF Victor Lindelöf 23 MF Adel Taarabt 40 MF João Teixeira 51 FW Dálcio 53 GK Thierry Graça 54 MF Juan San Martín 55 MF Gilson Costa 56 DF Alexis Scholl 57 MF Paweł Dawidowicz 58 MF Jim Varela 59 FW Oliver Šarkić 60 DF Pedro Rebocho 61 FW Clésio Baúque 62 FW Bruno Rodrigues 63 DF João Nunes (captain) 64 FW Francisco Vera

No. Position Player 66 DF Rúben Dias 73 DF Ricardo Carvalho 75 DF Alexandre Alfaiate 77 FW Sancidino Silva 79 DF Vitali Lystsov 80 MF Elbio Álvarez 81 FW Filipe Ferreira 84 FW Diogo Gonçalves 85 MF Renato Sanches 86 GK André Ferreira 87 GK Miguel Santos 88 MF Pedro Rodrigues 90 MF João Carvalho 95 DF Yuri Ribeiro 96 DF João Lima 99 FW Hildeberto Pereira — FW Flávio Silva

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 52 GK Bruno Varela (at Real Valladolid until 30 June 2016) 65 DF Fábio Cardoso (at Paços de Ferreira until 30 June 2016) 67 MF Hélder Costa (at Monaco until 30 June 2016) 74 FW Romário Baldé (at Tondela until 30 June 2016) — DF Gianni Rodríguez (at Peñarol)

No. Position Player — MF Kévin Oliveira (at Sporting da Covilhã until 30 June 2016) — MF Lolo (at Cádiz until 30 June 2016) — FW Harramiz Soares (at Farense until 30 June 2016) — FW Kevin Friesenbichler (at Austria Wien until 30 June 2016)

Personnel

Technical staff

Position	Staff
Head coach	Hélder Cristóvão
Assistant coach	André Sousa Nuno Alves Nikola Popovic Nélson Veríssimo Nuno Alves
Goalkeeping coach	Ricardo Pereira

Last updated: 1 October 2015
Source: S.L. Benfica

Former managers

• António Veloso (2001–2002)
• Carlos Gomes (2002–2004)
• João Santos (2004–2006)
• Luís Norton de Matos (2012–2013)

External links

• (Portuguese) (English) (Spanish)
• S.L. Benfica B at LPFP (Portuguese)