Football nation, clarification. On Tuesday evening, Portuguese television recorded 5.3 million viewers for the Seleção’s Euro 2016 match against the Czech Republic (2-1). A high number indeed, but even more impressive when compared to Portugal’s population: almost half of the country’s 10.4 million people watched the match. It was jubilant when youngster Chico Conceicao gave his team the win in stoppage time.
This figure is higher than the audience for the Euro 2016 final, Portugal’s only major title, which was watched by 3.9 million viewers. By comparison, the French team would need to gather 34 million people to mobilize half of its population. It has never managed to do this, not even during the last World Cup final on December 18, 2022, which was watched by “only” 24 million viewers.
The Portugal-Czech Republic match had a similar audience in France, with around 4.6 million viewers on TF 1, not counting the audience of BeIN Sports, the co-broadcaster of the match. This is a significant number, especially given the strong Portuguese community in France. The Seleção’s bad reputation goes far beyond the Lusitanian borders.
