The 1979–80 season was Sport Lisboa e Benfica's 76th season in existence and the club's 46th consecutive season in the top flight of Portuguese football, covering the period from 1 July 1979 to 30 June 1980. Benfica competed domestically in the Primeira Divisão and the Taça de Portugal, and participated in the UEFA Cup after finishing second in the previous league.

Benfica began the new season hoping to prevent a third consecutive season without honours. After discarding the rule that prevented foreigners from representing Benfica, they signed their first one, Jorge Gomes. He was aided by other addictions like Carlos Manuel, João Laranjeira and second foreigner, César. Departing players included João Alves, Eurico Gomes and José Henrique. The league campaign started well and Benfica even led the league on some weeks. However, two consecutive losses, caused them to be overtaken by his rivals. They recovered ground, but with a loss against Porto in early February, the gap to the leaders increased to four points, which made it near impossible to recover. So the season fell on the Portuguese Cup, and eliminating Sporting in the round of 16 and beating Porto on the Taça de Portugal Final, Benfica won their first trophy in three seasons and first Portuguese Cup in eight.

The new season started in an unusual situation for Benfica, as the last time they went two trophy-less seasons was in 1948. Former manager John Mortimore left at the end of his contract and was replaced by Mário Wilson. He was assisted by Peres Bandeira. The season brought significant changes because it was the first time that the club signed foreign players, after a members meet on 1 July 1978 decided to remove that prerequisite. The first foreigner to play for Benfica was Jorge Gomes. Other notable signings were Carlos Manuel, João Laranjeira and César, the latter in December. Major departures included João Alves, Eurico Gomes and José Henrique. To replace Alves, the press speculated on targets like Zico and Michel Platini, but nothing came out of it. The pre-season began on 23 July, and their opening game was on a tournament celebrating the 75 years of Schalke 04, which also included Liverpool. Afterwards, they also played in the celebrations of the 76 years of Boavista and made their presentation game against Botafogo on 17 August.

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