Brazilian Football State Championship
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Brazilian Football State Championships are competitions carried out in every state of Brazil. As the state championships are very old competitions, they are very traditional, and are almost important as the national leagues.
Historically, because of economical or geographical issues, the distances between the most important cities of the country made the Brazilian people, through their football passion, develop a strong competitive culture within the states. So, each Brazilian state has its own state championship. Today the state championships have a length of three or four months, and usually start in January.
Due to these competitions, some matches between rival clubs of the same state or city have a similar or bigger importance than an interstate match between two important clubs. These local matches are called clássicos (classics, or derbies). Some examples are Fla-Flu, in Rio de Janeiro, Corinthians-Palmeiras in São Paulo, Gre-Nal in Rio Grande do Sul, Atle-Tiba, in Paraná and so on.
The state champions and, in some states, the runners-up, are automatically qualified to play following year's Copa do Brasil. Also, the best placed clubs of each state which are not disputing the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A or Série B qualify to the same year's Série C.
