Ten facts about Santa Clara’s latest incursion into UEFA competition football | OneFootball

The Sweeper is a brilliant podcast and X account run by Lee Wingate and Paul Watson, who go where no other football podcast goes to cover football games across the world. Special focus is given to clubs from remote locations, far-flung islands or places where you would not expect to encounter football.

This week, Lee and Paul turned their attention to Liga Portugal club Santa Clara and their upcoming participation in the UEFA Conference League…

Primeira Liga club Santa Clara from the Azores are bringing UEFA competition football to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean this summer. What challenges do they face? And could they break the all-time European away day record?

Here are 10 facts you need to know.

1) Santa Clara is Europe’s westernmost club. Located 1,500 km from Lisbon in the mid-Atlantic, Santa Clara are the westernmost top-tier club across the 55 UEFA nations. By some distance. The next most westerly club, Vestri of Iceland, is 175km further east of Azorean capital Ponta Delgada.

2) Around the earth. That means they must fly around 50,000km - more than the earth’s circumference - to fulfil their away league fixtures alone. Each flight to the mainland is at least 1,500km & lasts 2h25m, with onward journeys often required to clubs outside Lisbon/Porto.

3) Isolated islanders. Santa Clara’s location means they are Europe’s most isolated top-flight club, with no league opponent within 900km. The closest away trip they can make is 977km to fellow island Madeira, where the likes of Nacional – Ronaldo’s former club – are based.

4) Pandemic relocation. During corona, lockdown restrictions in the Azores meant Santa Clara had to relocate to the mainland for the final stage of 2019/20. The club played all their remaining home games at Portuguese Football Federation headquarters - 1,436km away from home.

5) Volcanic home. Usually, Santa Clara play home games on the largest island, São Miguel, where the capital Ponta Delgada is located. It is located on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, but volcanic activity has not been recorded for centuries: the last major eruption was in the 1600s!

6) Visit to Varaždin. Santa Clara have been drawn against Croatians Varaždin in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Conference League. Varaždin coach Nikola Šafarić said: “We can’t say we’re thrilled with the draw, primarily because of the demanding trip that awaits us.”

7) Yugoslav connection. According to @fmeetsdata, this will be Santa Clara’s fourth European tie - and they have all been against Balkan clubs. In the inaugural UEFA Conference League in 2021/22, they beat Shkupi and Olimpija Ljubljana but lost to Partizan Belgrade.

8) Long haul. The furthest-away teams that they could currently be drawn against in the UEFA Conference League qualifying rounds are from Kazakhstan. The distance to FC Astana and Ordabasy Shymkent would be an eye-watering 7,276km and 7,672km respectively as the crow flies!

9) Record-shattering away day. If that were to happen, it would totally shatter the UEFA club competition away day record - already held by clubs from Portugal and Kazakhstan. In the 2015/16 UEFA Champions League, Astana faced Benfica - a trip of 6,173km. Two years later, they drew Sporting!

10) Logo likeness. Eduardo Medeiros, President of the General Assembly, announced a re-design of the club logo in December 2023. It had previously been very similar to Benfica’s badge - a resemblance that can be attributed to their admiration for the Lisbon club and the fact Santa Clara used to be an affiliate of Benfica.

Our thanks to Lee and Paul for allowing us to reproduce their lowdown on Santa Clara in Europe. We highly recommend bookmarking The Sweeper Podcast and X account!