The club's name derives from the footballing division of the Associação Académica de Coimbra, officially known as the Associação Académica de Coimbra - Secção de Futebol (AAC-SF), which fields its own amateur football teams as a second incarnation starting in 1977 and belongs to the student association of the University of Coimbra like the professional AAC-OAF which is however an autonomous organization inside the student association and owns the entire heritage and historical records formerly belonging to AAC-SF until 1974.

The Associação Académica de Coimbra - Secção de Futebol (AAC-SF) amateur football team, which also belongs to the Associação Académica de Coimbra students association (students union) of the University of Coimbra, was reinstated in 1977 operating as a sports section of AAC and has been in operation as a student-only football team, usually playing in the lower, regional non-professional football leagues.

[5][6] The AAC-SF section, the non-professional football team made of students, and the AAC-OAF, the professional and autonomous football club, share the same crest and colors displayed on the clothes or uniforms of their sports players,[7] as well as the same parent organization (which is the students' union or association Associação Académica de Coimbra that houses several sections for a multitude of other sports operating under the same name and crest as well).

[13] Following a decade of almost exclusively bottom-half finishes, the team won its first silverware in 73 years when they took the cup in 2012, Marinho scoring the only goal after four minutes against Sporting CP.

[14] This allowed them entry into the group stage of the UEFA Europa League – a first European campaign in 30 years.

Eliminated in third place in the group, they managed one win, 2–0 at home to holders Atlético Madrid with a brace from Wilson Eduardo.

[22][23][24][25] The home ground it uses is the Estádio Cidade de Coimbra which has a capacity of 29,622 and belongs to the municipality's local government authority.