Sporting Clube Português de Toronto

Founding Date:	April 14, 1980
Address:	1650 Dupont Street Toronto, Ontario M6P 3T2
Telephone:	416-763-1707

BRIEF HISTORY

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Sporting Clube Português de Toronto was founded on April 4, 1980 by nine Sporting supporters. The event occurred on Lippincott Street but the organization soon found a home on Augusta Avenue, just north of Dundas Street, where it remained before it settled at the current location, in the mid 1990s. 

The purchase of the new headquarters was an important and calculated step for the organization. In just about a decade, it paid off the building and was able to grow not only as an association but also as a soccer academy, mirroring the famous Academia de Alcochete, in Portugal. 

Founded out of the love for soccer and the club it represents, the sport continues to be the main focus of the organization. At the turn of the century, it secured the use of Brockton Stadium, right next to Dufferin Mall. This led to a boom in terms of registrations by young soccer players and followed by tremendous success on the field in the various age groups it serves. 

Carlos Ferreira, long-time Board Member and crucial element in the organization, told Luso-Ontario Magazine, in a conversation held in 2008, that soccer had always been the major focus of the association. “Sporting always had soccer. We played in the MTSA [Metro Toronto Soccer Association], we had a junior team that played in the OSA and when I joined the club in 2000 we started a veterans squad”, he said. 

Even though adult soccer helps promote the club, it is through youth soccer that it has placed itself as one of the most prominent soccer academies in Ontario. All this has been accomplished through the hard work of many volunteers. However, it has also had the help of some great professionals such as former Portuguese soccer star, Pedro Dias, who was the club’s technical director for a few years. 

This current success could not have been possible without the unconditional financial support of business owner Augusto Pires. He is undoubtedly responsible for the many great conditions that the club offers its athletes and volunteers. 

Although Brockton Stadium is the most prominent home of Sporting Clube Português de Toronto, the clubhouse continues to be its pride and joy. It has a hall with a capacity for 188 people on the main floor and another with a capacity for 235 in the second floor. Here, beyond socializing and watching Sporting play on the television, you can admire a vast coin collection or follow the famous table tennis tournaments promoted by the association. 

With files from Luso-Ontario Magazine, 2008

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