During his time at Sporting Clube de Portugal in the early 1990s, the president forbade Sir Bobby Robson from going to scout Benfica. “You don’t go there,” he raged. “We hate them.”

That was before he burst into the dressing-room mid-derby and offered to double the players’ win bonus, before he dismissed his coach via the public address on the team plane. This is Lisbon and as the journalist alongside me in Estádio da Luz said: “It’s complex.”

The Lisbon derby grabs Portugal’s attention like no other match. FC Porto may now be more lauded, but in a country of 11 million people, an estimated nine million follow the capital’s two big teams. And so last week they gathered in the bars in Bairro Alto and in homes all around the nation to watch and forget about bribery, bandits and the Iron Lady.

Things are different in Portugal. Graeme Souness, who had a miserable time at Benfica before being dismissed in 1998, recalled how the players refused to use the exercise machines he had bought in an attempt to boost their physiques. Suddenly, after weeks of apathy, there was frantic activity in the gym. “I asked one of the backroom staff about the change of heart and he said, ‘Summer is on the way and they want to look good for the girls on the beach,’ ” Souness said.

Benfica are also different in being the only club who release an eagle before kick-off at home matches. It circles the cavernous bowl to cheers from the Benfiquistas and catcalls from the visiting team’s fans. Benfica differ, too, in their ambivalence to the corruption that has long tainted their football.

In 2001, João Vale e Azevedo, the Benfica president at the time, was jailed for four years for fraud. At his trial it was claimed that he had pocketed money from the sale of a Russian goalkeeper to buy a yacht called Lucky Me. It says much of Benfica’s importance that he was not arrested until he stepped down as club president and, even then, continued to reside at his luxury villa. The Government also has a novel way of doing things, fighting the club for two years for nonpayment of taxes but giving them a £16 million grant to help to build their showpiece stadium for Euro 2004.

Even now the Apito Dourado saga, or Golden Whistle, lumbers on. This is a match-fixing scandal to rival Italy’s and involved 150 police officers and a midnight raid. Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa, the president of Porto, is among those being investigated. It has also been claimed that LuÍs Felipe Vieira, the present Benfica president, helped to choose the referee for a Portuguese Cup semi-final.

“It’s complex,” Ricardo Seames, a writer and Benfica fan, said. “In Italy they sort these things out in one month. Here it has been two years, but now we have a new judge, the Iron Lady – like your Margaret Thatcher – and perhaps she will move it along.”

Nevertheless, Libson hosts a vibrant derby match for which relatives turn up together in different colours. The incident three years ago when 12 Sporting fans ran on to their team’s pitch armed with sticks after Benfica had scored a late winner was unusual. Any violence is usually reserved for when Porto come to town.

The rivalry is heightened in intensity by the clubs being three bus stops apart on the same highway. John Mortimore, the Southampton president, who had two spells as Benfica manager, recalled how fans would gather at their ground to barrack the team on their return from derby defeats. “It meant everything,” he said.

When Mortimore arrived in Lisbon, the club’s most famous player used to coach the reserve team. “I went to watch and Eusébio could not believe it,” Mortimore said. “He said no coach had ever seen the seconds.”

At last week’s derby, Rui Costa and the rest took to the pitch wearing T-shirts bearing the words Força Eusébio. The legend had just been released from the nearby Hospital da Luz after heart surgery. About 55,000 turned up to wish him well amid feverish excitement after Porto’s unexpected defeat the previous night, a result that left both Lisbon clubs in with a chance of winning the title.

If Porto are jointly reviled, the enmity has nothing to do with Sporting’s former translator, José Mourinho, who went on to coach Porto to Champions League glory. “In England I think you love Mourinho or you hate him,” Paolo Medeiros, a Sporting fan, said. “But here we love him or love him more.”

Liédson scored for Sporting after 70 seconds last week, to stun the home crowd. “The fans are fickle,” Souness said. “You have ten minutes to score before they start whistling and booing – it’s the philosophy of the bullfight, where there must be a victim.”

By the end, it was honours even, but it was a brief glimpse at the different world that Damon Lavelle, the architect who designed the Estádio da Luz, had encountered when he was told he was in bandit country during an early meeting. The stadium was built, but the problems remain in a country where football is always political. Mortimore won three titles with Benfica, but he knew that he would go when “the big man” changed.

Robson was dismissed when Sporting were top of the league for the first time in 15 years. This is Lisbon and no one said it was simple.

Capital appreciation

April 29, 2007 Benfica 1 Sporting 1

Atmosphere Loud and proud, prematch flares and a golden eagle 8

Status Usurped by FC Porto in recent times, the clubs still field a string of internationals and are fighting for the title 8

History Benfica have two European Cups and the world record for registered paying supporters. They also have 28 league titles to Sporting’s 18 8

Ugliness Any violence usually involves inter-city Lisbon and Porto clashes 4

Fan rating The Football Derbies website gives the match a higher rating than the Manchester and Milan derbies 7.9

Total 35.9 (out of 50)

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