Sociedade Anónima Desportiva

Sociedade Anónima Desportiva ("Public limited sports company") is a special type of public limited company (SA) in Portugal.[1][2][3] The new legal status was introduced in the 1990s to improve financial management and transparency in sports clubs. Many Portuguese football and basketball clubs, or teams within a multi-sport club, add the suffix SAD to the end of their official name.

Formation and characteristics

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The legal structure of a Sociedade Anónima Desportiva allows for the formation of a public limited company whose corporate purpose is to participate in professional sports competitions, promote and organize sporting events, and foster or develop activities related to the professional practice of a given sport.

A Sociedade Anónima Desportiva has the following characteristics:

• it can be formed through the transformation of a sports club that participates or intends to participate in professional sports competitions. It can also be established by giving legal personality to a team that participates or intends to participate in professional sports, or by being created from scratch, independent of any existing club or team;

• a sports club that has opted to form a Sociedade Anónima Desportiva or give legal personality to its professional team cannot return to participating in professional sports competitions except under this new legal status;

• the minimum share capital is €997,595.79 for sports companies participating in the 1st division, €498,797.90 for those in the 2nd division of honor, and €249,398.95 for companies formed to participate in professional basketball competitions and for those outside the scope of professional competitions (as an exception);

See also

• List of football clubs in Portugal
• Sociedad Anónima Deportiva
• Sociedade Anônima do Futebol