São Vicente Island League

São Vicente Island League
Region	São Vicente Island, Cape Verde
Founded	1938
Number of teams	8 (Premier Division) 6 (Second Division)
Promotion to	Cape Verdean Football Championship
Domestic cup(s)	São Vicente Cup São Vicente SuperCup
Current champions	CS Mindelense (48th time) (2015-16)
Most championships	CS Mindelense (48 times)
Website	Official website

The São Vicente Island League is a regional championship played in São Vicente Island, Cape Verde. The winner of the championship plays in Cape Verdean football Championships of each season. Its current president is Júlio do Rosário. In 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016, a second place club participated in the national championships, recently as Mindelense won in 2014 and in 2015, FC Derby also participated in 2015 and in 2016.

About the Island/Regional League

The area includes the northwest central part of Cape Verde (especially the three islands of Santa Luzia, Ilhéu Branco and Ilhéu Raso which are not populated today are included in area, though the name of other isles are not used, also there are no clubs in that area).

The island league was founded in 1938 and is the oldest and existing island league in Cape Verde. In the founding years, the league formerly included much of the Barlavento Islands, when more clubs were created even the other islands, it reduced the area to only the northwestern and then the northwestcentral part of the country. None of the clubs outside the island participated in the island division before their island divisions were created. In its first three seasons, only a single match existed, Académica and GD Amarantes were founded later and the number of clubs risen to four.

The two island competitions were the highest level local championship in Cape Verde. The 1953 island champion who was Académica would compete in the first colonial championship and claimed the first colonial title. The only entrant was a club from the island of São Vicente up to the end of colonial rule. Some clubs were created years later including Castilho and Falcões do Norte in the 1960s and increased its clubs to six, the points system was introduced and featured a ten-match season that started in the early of the year. After Batuque was founded, the club number rise to eight and nine in around 1990 after Corinthians who was the first Brazilian based club on the island was founded in 1988, it started a sixteen match season and had a two-year season.

After Santiago Island League South or Fogo, it would be the next league to have a second division in the mid-2000s. Once the clubs were only around Mindelo, a few clubs were added and are based in other parts of the island including Calhau in the east, Salamansa in the north and São Pedro in the southwest.

Title history

Mindelense won their first of the consecutive titles in the beginning of the league. Amarantes won their first in 1944 and their second in 1945 before Mindelense won two more in 1946 and 1947. Académica of Mindelo won their first in 1948, Mindelense would go on to win four consecutive titles after that. Académica broke Mindelense's fifth straight title change and won their second in 1953, Mindelense went to win seven consecutive titles, Amarantes broke Mindelense's eight straight title and claimed their third in 1961, Mindelense won again in 1962, Académica won two straight followed by FC Derby who won their very first title in 1965. Mindelense won another in 1966, Académica won another in 1967, Mindelense won eight consecutive titles between 1975 and 1982, one was in the final year of Portuguese colonial rule, the other seven was won after the nation became independent. Derby won four consecutive between 1983 and 1986, Mindelense won 6 consecutive between 1988 and 1994, though the 1990/91 season was cancelled. Académica broke Mindelense's change on having 7 consecutive for the second time in 1995. Mindelense continued to be island champions between 1996 and 1998, Amarante was the next winner in 1999, two consecutive champions was won by Derby and later by Batuque in 2002, the recent club to win their first title, Mindelense won titles every two years between 2009 and 2015 and recently won their second consecutive in 2016 and is the recent champion of the island.

CS Mindelense has the most number of island titles with 48 and the most of any of the island leagues in the country. Mindelense's percentage dominates around 61% of the regional total of 78. The second are Académica and Derby with 10 and the fewest with two titles is Castilho. Six clubs in the championships won titles.