Sporting Clube Português de Montreal
| Founding Date: | 1982 |
| Affiliation: | Filial 144 |
| Status: | Dissolved |
Brief History
Audio Version:
It was in the distant year of 1982 that Sporting Clube de Portugal gained representation in Montreal after Romano Viegas and Alfredro Carreira, among a few others, founded a local affiliate of the Portuguese soccer giant. It became the mother club’s Filial number 144. The organization enjoyed many years of success but, in 2010, it eventually succumbed to low membership and entered the realms of History.
Dinis Dias Tibúrcio, a lifelong sportinguista, was a major force within the organization when he took charge with the intention to revive it at a time that it was falling into decay. Unfortunately, his remarkable efforts did not impede the club’s dissolution. “It was hard. It disappointed me very much because I went to Sporting to help but then I had no choice but to close it,” Mr. Tiburcio told us during a telephone conversation in January of 2022.
Born in the Parish of São Bento, municipality of Porto de Mós, Dinis Tibúrcio arrived in Montreal on May 29, 1971. Two years later, his wife and two children joined him. In 1978, he put his entrepreneurial spirit to work and opened Épicerie Caravana, a supermarket that became a popular spot for the Portuguese living in the city and that he owned until he retired due to vision problems.
Although he was not part of the founding members of Sporting in Montreal, he remembers the glorious days of the 1980s when the organization flourished. “When FC Porto played the Champions Cup final against Bayern Munich, in 1987, Sporting bought a satellite dish with some eighteen or twenty feet in diameter. It was huge. It cost ten or twelve thousand dollars at the time. The first game that we showed with that dish was Porto against Peñarol Montevideo. The game started at around midnight or one in the morning,” he recalled. It was the first of many games that saw the club’s headquarters fill to capacity. This trend continued for many years and represented an important source of income for the organization. “We used to buy a lot of games, including Champions League games. We charged $10 at the door, and we always had around 70 or 80 people. It worked very well for quite a long time, but then people started watching the games at home and we had less and less people there,” Dinis Tibúrcio recounted.
According to Mr. Tibúrcio, there was an opportunity to purchase the organization’s first headquarters but the Board at the time did not believe that it was the ideal location. “They decided to move. They could have purchased the property but they decided that it did not meet the club’s vision,” Dinis Tibúrcio recalled. This seems to have been an important turning point that took years to manifest.
The organization settled on Saint Laurent Boulevard, above a bank. Although it was the perfect location, the rent quickly became the problem. “They raised the rent a certain percentage every month. We started by paying just over one thousand dollars and by the time we left we were paying $2,500. We were there for five years, but it was unsustainable,” Dinis Tibúrcio said.
It was at this time that Mr. Tibúrcio joined the organization as a director. Although he never officially took on the role of President due to his ever-worsening disability, he was very much the one in charge. “In October of 1998, someone from Sporting showed up at my store and began saying that the club was going to close, that things were bad, that I should help revive it. The club was in shambles. There were unpaid bills, nothing was getting paid,” he informed.
He accepted the challenge.
For some time, there was hope. The accounts were settled and the organization moved, in 2001, to a location with a lower rent. However, this lower rent kept on getting less and less affordable. On top of it all, the number of people visiting the club began to dwindle to dangerous numbers. “We couldn’t find anyone to be part of the Board. Everyone said that they would help but nobody wanted their name associated with the organization. I told them that we were running the risk of closing, that we couldn’t do it (without support). We had a meeting, prepared the paperwork and, on March 6, 2010, closed the club,” Mr. Tibúrcio sadly recounted.
Even though the events at the clubhouse were the main feature of the organization, it also promoted other activities during its nearly three decades of operation. Ever since its first few years of existence, the club had youth and adult soccer squads. While the men enjoyed relative success, the youth team was extremely competitive, winning many trophies in various competitions. Its most memorable achievement is the title of champions of the Province of Quebec. However, it all ended in the 1990s.
“My conscience is clear. I never kept a dime and everything I did was to help the club. Even to this day there are sportinguistas who approach me when they see me to thank me for what I’ve done for Sporting. I am sad that it had to end. The people who arrived here in the 60s and 70s were dedicated, but the newer generation has no interest. I am 73 years old. Those who founded the club were in their forties and over at the time. Most have already passed away,” he lamented.
Although Sporting Clube Português de Montreal no longer has a physical presence in the city, it continues to live not only through those who dedicated endless hours to its mission but also through the stories that need to continue to be told about those who were once part of the organization and the accomplishments they were able to achieve.
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