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| © Carlo Ramos 2004 [email protected] "Viva Marítimo Online" is 100% unofficial and as a result the views expressed throughout this website do not reflect or effect those of CS Marítimo or Marítimo da Madeira S.A.D. |
| HISTORY: |
| CLUB INFO HISTORY HONOURS PRESIDENT STADIUM SPORTS COMPLEX |
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| The first football was brought to Madeira in 1875 by “our best-ever foreign friend,” an 18-year-old Englishman named Harry Hinton. He was the son of a family that became rich in exploiting sugar cane in Madeira, and introduced the game to the local people of Camacha, playing matches in the town square. Thanks to Harry Hinton, who would later become an Honorary President of CS Marítimo, Madeira was introduced to football, long before the rest of Portugal was.
During September of 1910, the Almirante Reis field in Funchal was used for a football match between a team of locals and a team of Englishmen from the Western Telegraph Company. The match finished in a 2-1 victory for the Portuguese, which sparked enthusiasm amongst the people of Funchal, who wanted a local team to be established. So on the 20th September 1910, Cândido Fernandes de Gouveia founded the Clube Sports da Marítimo, renting out a building adjacent to the Almirante Reis field to be used as the clubs’ headquarters. A board of directors was formed and Joaquim de Pontes was appointed as the clubs first President, with João Rodrigues as his Vice-President. |
The name “Marítimo” was chosen as a reference to the clubs’ maritime connections, because many of the first players worked in the port of Funchal for a living. Green and red were the chosen colours of the newly founded club, taken from the colours of the Republican flag, in order to distinguish themselves from another newly formed club, CS Madeira, who used the blue and white colours of the Monarchy flag. 15 days after the foundation of our club, Portugal became a republic, and replaced the old blue and white flag with the new green and red flag. The team began by playing against the Western Telegraph Company team and against teams of sailors from visiting British ships. José Rodrigues Barrinhas, an old fashioned attacking centre-half made a name for himself in these games and in matches against the rival club CS Madeira. |
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| The Marítimo team in 1910. |
In 1912, two years after the foundation of the club, Marítimo embarked on their first away trip, for a series of matches in the capital city Lisboa. The tour results were mixed. Marítimo lost 3-1 and 5-2 against Benfica, beat Lisboa FC 3-0, lost 1-0 to now-defunct CF Internacional and crashed to a 5-1 defeat against a Lisboa Select XI. Along with Marítimo and CS Madeira, many more teams in Funchal were being founded, including Nacional and União. A competition was needed to determine who out of the rival clubs could claim to be the best team in Madeira. In 1917, the Funchal Football Association, established the previous year, started a regional championship, of which Marítimo were the first winners. |
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| Champions of Madeira: Marítimo's domination of Madeiran football started with the 1917 regional championship win. |