Académica, formally known as the Associação Académica de Coimbra - Organismo Autónomo de Futebol, is an autonomous football organisation inside of the Associação Académica de Coimbra. It is the oldest sports club in Portugal, the fourth in number of supporters (after Benfica, Sporting and Porto) and it is the most important club of Coimbra. It was founded by students of the University of Coimbra in 1876, as an academic students association.

The equipment used is black shirt, shorts and socks, due to the relation to and origin in the local and famous University of Coimbra where students wear a typical black suit. The main football team uses the Estádio Cidade de Coimbra (specially rebuilt and modernized for the Euro 2004) with 30.000 seats. Académica has been in the Portuguese main division most of the time.

In the beginning, Académica's football players were almost all university students. This was the rule during many decades until the 1970s. After the "25 de Abril" revolution (1974) in Portugal, many changes took place in Portuguese society, and since then, the Académica's football team and staff, were gradually professionalized.

Académica's football team was the first winner in the history of the Portuguese Football Cup, in 1939.

The team has the nickname of "Briosa", which means Proud.

See also

• Associação Académica de Coimbra
• University of Coimbra
• Coimbra

External links

• Associação Académica de Coimbra (AAC)
• Académica (Unofficial)
• Briosa.org (Unofficial)
• Universidade de Coimbra

Official supporters

• Mancha Negra