Early in the 20th Century, three young men from São Paulo who had recently arrived in Porto Alegre wanted to play soccer. But were not admitted at any club in town, because they were newcomers in Porto Alegre so they decided to found their own club. On the night of Monday, April 41909, in the basement of a house, and conducted by the brothers Henrique and José Poppe Leão, and Luiz Madeira Poppe, 40 young men (twice more people than expected to attend the meeting) founded Sport Club Internacional. Poppe Leão had founded SC Internacional in São Paulo and although the two share a name and a colour, they are unconnected. The Gigante da Beira-Rio stadium, the home of Internacional, was inaugurated on a clear afternoon of Sunday, April 61969 with the Internacional 2-1 victory against Benfica of Portugal. Inter supporters helped build the stadium, by bringing cement, nail boxes, iron bars or some bricks. The people's effort was essential to the construction of the Gigante da Beira-Rio. In early times, the stadium had capacity for more than 90,000 spectators, and now, with the modern regulations by FIFA, the correct capacity is about 58,306 supporters. In addition to the stadium, the club also owns the Beira-Rio Sportive Complex, including auxiliary training fields, Gigantinho Sportive Gymnsasium and the Nautical Complex. All teams from every category work together, and players have close relationships with their professional superstars and idols since the youth divisions. The Gigante complex also has restaurants, headquarters for players, physical training rooms, shops, museum, rooms for the Directors Board, management, marketing, telephony, parking and bank. It also has one of the best-equipped dressing rooms of Brazil, one of the most complete and luxurious in the world, inaugurated in 2004. Gigantinho is the largest sports gymnasium owned by a club in the country, having 18,000 people capacity and perfect safety, acoustic and luminosity conditions for all kind of events, like music shows or public concourses. In 1975, Internacional was the first club of Rio Grande do Sul to win the Brazilian Championship, making the state soccer to overpass the frontiers with a historical 1-0 victory (and the called "Iluminated Goal" of Elías Figueroa) against Cruzeiro from Minas Gerais, at the Gigante da Beira-Rio. It was also at Beira-Rio stadium that Inter became two-times Brazilian champions, in 1976 against Corinthians, winning by 2-0 goal margin. And, in 1979, Internacional becomes the first and only club ever to win the Brazilian Championship without a single defeat at all in their campaign, with a win in the last game against Vasco da Gama by a score of 2-1. Their successful run continued at the international level, as in 1980 the team reached the finals of the Copa Libertadores de América where they lost against Nacional de Montevideo. And, as expected, the title of Brazilian Cup against Fluminense in 1992 was again at Beira-Rio stadium, by the smallest margin 1-0. With this title, Internacional earned the right to play Copa Libertadores de América in 1993. Due to a poor campaign in a group with Flamengo (BRA), America de Cali and Atletico Nacional (both from Colombia), featuring 3 defeats, 3 draws and no wins, Internacional was eliminated in the first round. Colorado would wait 13 years to play a Libertadores again. The club remained in football ostracism for over a decade, when they were very close to relegation for 2 times: in 1999 and in 2002. In the first occasion, the relief game was against Palmeiras in Gigante da Beira-Rio stadium. This game is worthy of mention because almost every ball in the stadium were vanished after Internacional scored the winning goal, causing several match interruptions. The match ended 1-0 and Inter made it to stay in Serie A. The second occasion, in 2002, had a decisive game against Paysandu, in Belem. Despite having an average record on that competition, Paysandu was known for their strength as home team. Internacional achieved a 2-0 victory that kept them on Serie A once more. In 2005 Internacional were runners-up of the Campeonato Brasileiro, losing the title to Corinthians in the last round and after a controversial season that saw matches being cancelled because of a match-rigging scandal.
South American Champions
On August 16, 2006, Inter managed to secure a draw against São Paulo in the second leg of the Copa Libertadores final match and were crowned South American champions for the first time ever. The campaign included eight wins, six draws, and just one defeat, to Ecuador's Liga Deportiva Universitaria in the quarter-finals. To win the title, Internacional had to move past two clubs that had won the tournament three times - Uruguay's Club Nacional de Fútbol and Brazil's São Paulo, who were the current champions. Against São Paulo, Internacional arguably won the title away in the first leg. Stunning the 80,000 são-paulinos attending the match at the Morumbi stadium, Rafael Sóbis scored twice in the second half before defender Edcarlos scored for São Paulo. Internacional needed just a draw in the second leg at home, and they enjoyed the home advantage to the fullest and left the pitch qualified for the FIFA Club World Championship, which they played in December in Japan. Striker Fernandão, who, along with Tinga, scored in the final match at the Beira-Rio stadium, was one of the 14 players finishing as top scorer of the Libertadores, with five goals. He was voted Man of the Match against São Paulo and won a Toyota Corolla as the prize. Fernandão put the car up for auction and gave the money to charity organizations.
Libertadores Campaign
16/02/2006 - Maracaibo 1 X 1 Internacional - (Jose Pachencho Romero, Santa Rita)
23/02/2006 - Internacional 3 X 0 Nacional - (Beira-Rio, Porto Alegre)
08/03/2006 - Pumas 1 X 2 Internacional - (Universitario, Mexico City)
22/03/2006 - Internacional 3 X 2 Pumas - (Beira-Rio, Porto Alegre)
04/04/2006 - Nacional 0 X 0 Internacional - (Parque Central, Montevideo)
18/04/2006 - Internacional 4 X 0 Maracaibo - (Beira-Rio, Porto Alegre)
27/04/2006 - Nacional 1 X 2 Internacional - (Parque Central, Montevideo)
03/05/2006 - Internacional 0 X 0 Nacional - (Beira-Rio, Porto Alegre)
10/05/2006 - LDU 2 X 1 Internacional - (La Casa Blanca, Quito)
19/07/2006 - Internacional 2 X 0 LDU - (Beira-Rio, Porto Alegre)
27/07/2006 - Libertad 0 X 0 Internacional - (Defensores Del Chaco, Asuncion)
03/08/2006 - Internacional 2 X 0 Libertad - (Beira-Rio, Porto Alegre)
09/08/2006 - São Paulo 1 X 2 Internacional - (Morumbi, São Paulo)
16/08/2006 - Internacional 2 X 2 São Paulo - (Beira-Rio, Porto Alegre)
World Champions
After winning the Libertadores, Internacional won a place in the FIFA Club World Cup 2006, along with continental champions FC Barcelona (Spain), Club América (Mexico), Al Ahly (Egypt), Jeonbuk Motors (South Korea) and Auckland City (New Zealand). After a preliminary round between the champions of Asia, Africa, Oceania and CONCACAF, Inter were seeded to play the Egyptians for the semifinals. The match was not nearly as easy as expected, Inter having scored the opener with Alexandre Pato but conceded an equaliser in the second half. Luckily, late substitute Luiz Adriano managed to score the winner and booked the team a place in the final against giants FC Barcelona. The Spaniards advanced after a lavish 4-0 win over Club América and went to the final match regarded as favourites by the world media. Playing the underdog, coach Abel Braga adopted a defensive formation and applied tight marking against the Catalan team, especially against superstars Ronaldinho and Deco. Even though FC Barcelona dominated possession, the game remained goalless until late in the second half. When it seemed the affair might be decided on a penalty shoot-out, Inter skipper Fernandão became injured and was replaced by Adriano Gabiru. It took the substitute just a few minutes for him to write his name in the history of football. Assisted by forward Iarley, Adriano scored the winner nine minutes from time, much to the dismay of the Spaniards. FC Barcelona kept pushing for an equaliser, but Inter held firmly until the final whistle. By winning the Recopa Sudamericana in the following year, Internacional secured the "South American triple crown", holding simultaneously the three greatest titles a South American team can compete for: the Recopa, FIFA Club World Cup and Libertadores Cup. More recently, Internacional was invited to play the Dubai Cup in 2008, alongside German league champions Stuttgart, Italian league champions Internazionale and Dutch Cup champions Ajax.
Internacional's current stadium is Estádio Beira-Rio, inaugurated in 1969, with a maximum capacity of 56,000 people. Beira-Rio replaced the Estádio dos Eucaliptos, which hosted two 1950 FIFA World Cup matches. Beira-Rio is currently tipped to be one of the venues of a likely FIFA World Cup to be played in Brazil in 2014.
Ultras
Guarda Popular Colorada
Torcida Organizada Camisa 12
Torcida Organizada Super FICO (Força Independente Colorada)
Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense)
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Al-Gharafa)
Marítimo)
Standard Liege)
Dino Sani (1971-1974, 1983)
Villalba
