2016–17 Campeonato de Portugal
The 2016–17 Campeonato de Portugal (also known as Campeonato de Portugal Prio, for sponsorship reasons) was the fourth season of Portuguese football's renovated third-tier league, since the merging of the Segunda Divisão and Terceira Divisão in 2013, and the second season under the current Campeonato de Portugal title. A total of 80 teams compete in this division, which began on 20 August 2016 and ended on 18 June 2017. Format The competition format consists of two stages. In the first stage, the 80 clubs were divided in eight series of 10 teams, according to geographic criteria. The only exceptions were teams from Madeira, which were placed in the first series, and teams from the Azores, which were distributed through the latter series. In each series, teams play against each other in a home-and-away double round-robin system. In the second stage, the two best-placed teams from each first-stage series were divided in two groups of eight teams, again according to geographic proximity, with home-and-away matches. The two group winners secured promotion to the LigaPro. To determine the overall division champion, the group winners contested a one-off grand final on a neutral ground. On 15 March 2016, the LPFP announced that four