Football is the most popular sport in Cape Verde and has been for many years. Today it is one of the few countries that does not use the common division system (e.g. the Gambia, another small country uses the national division system and has the Premier and Second Divisions), another small country smaller in size is
São Tomé and Príncipe who uses the same system as Cape Verde, but the system which Cape Verde used up to the 1990s having only a national championship match, the winner of each island competes in the national championships, sometimes when an island winner also won the championship as they won a national title in the previous season, a second place club competes, the national winner competes in the following season. The first edition was held in 1953 and was the Colonial Championships held up to 1974 as Cape Verde was under Portuguese rule. After Cape Verde became independent in 1975, it held its first edition in 1976, three championship competitions were cancelled, the first was difficulty of finding a winner from Sotavento, that year, other islands competed in the national championships. Mindelense also has the most national titles numbering 12. The first regional championship was
São Vicente, its first edition was held in 1938.
Mindelense won the most titles numbering 48, the highest of any of the regional championships in the world. The
Santiago Island League is the second oldest and since 2001 and formally since 2003, broken up into two zones. There are 11 championships in 9 islands, two are in the North and South Zones. Cape Verde has over 100 football clubs. Youth championships are held in most islands. The nation also has the cup, the super cup and the opening tournament in each region, the Santiago North Zone does not have these competitions. The
Cape Verdean Cup held its first edition in 2007, it was held four times up to 2012, afterwards it was cancelled. The winner of the cup from each island competed. Maio competed twice and Brava competed once. Santiago North never competed. There are 11 cup competitions, Santiago North does not have any, Santo Antão has both the North and South Zones and since 2016, the regional level. The
Cape Verdean Super Cup took place in 2013 with its first edition, the champion featured a cup winner, Sporting Praia win their only title, a year later the champion faced a super cup winner from the previous year, Mindelense won their only title in the recent edition in 2014. The first club to compete at the African level was
Sporting Praia in 1993, years after Cape Verde became a CAF member. A total of five clubs participated including Sporting Praia, Mindelense,
FC Derby,
Boavista Praia and
Travadores, only one club
SC Atlético was disqualified in 1992 due to that the football federation did not name the entrant on time. Mindelense is the oldest football club in Cape Verde. It also has the westernmost club in the whole of Africa named
Tarrafal de Monte Trigo, a lesser club and a newly established one who participated in the Santo Antão South Zone in the 2013-14 season. The Opening Tournaments (Association Cup in some islands) has one part with a club meeting once, some has three or four rounds than a final match. There are several venues for football,
Estádio da Várzea in Praia, the capital is the most used, second is Mindelo's
Estádio Municipal Adérito Sena is the second most used. Santiago has the most football venues. Boa Vista, Maio and Brava have only a venue each. ==Basketball==