The Big Three (Portuguese: Os Três Grandes) is the nickname of the three most successful and biggest football clubs in Portugal.
[3] Sporting fans, "sportinguistas" and "leões" ("lions"), are called "lagartos" ("lizards"),[4], while FC Porto supporters, "portistas" or "dragões ("dragons"), are nicknamed "andrades" and "tripeiros", despite the latter nickname also including people from Porto but who are fans of any other club (including Benfica and Sporting CP).
[5] Being the most popular and regular winners of the Primeira Liga (only Belenenses and Boavista have managed to win the competition once, in 1945/46 and 2000/01 respectively), the Big Three have achieved such hegemony that the vast majority of Portuguese fans support one of them, relegating the local team to second place.
[7][8] The Portuguese press, often accused of failing to fulfil any criteria of equality with the other clubs in the league who are constantly snubbed, is another reason often given for the majority of the Portuguese population to support one of these three teams based in Lisbon and Porto to the detriment of the team based in their own city.
This is due to the increase in the average attendance at the D. Afonso Henriques (Vitória de Guimarães), Municipal de Chaves (Chaves), Barreiros (Marítimo) and Bessa (Boavista) stadiums, in addition to the average attendance increasing by more than 15,000 people at the José Alvalade Stadium (Sporting) between 2011 and 2018.