Campeonato Brasileiro Série A

Campeonato Brasileiro Série A

Countries	Brazil
Confederation	CONMEBOL
Founded	1971
Number of teams	20
Relegation to	Série B
Level on pyramid	Level 1
Domestic cup(s)	Copa do Brasil
International cup(s)	Copa Libertadores Copa Sudamericana
Current champions	São Paulo (2007)
Website	http://www.cbf.com.br/
Campeonato Brasileiro Série A 2008

The Série A (informally called Brasileirão) is the highest division of Brazilian football. It is composed of 20 teams; currently, the bottom four teams in Série A are relegated and the top four teams in Série B are promoted.

Due to its large continental size and historical peculiarities, Brazil has a short history of national competitions. The modern Campeonato Brasileiro only started in 1971, supported by the then military regime and made easier by the advancements in in civil aviation and air transport. Therefore, unlike other football nations, every state of Brazil have its own state competition which were considered until the 1950's the main competitions and between 1960's and 1980's generally regarded as important as the national ones.

Controversies aside, the CBF do not officially recognize the national tournaments from 1959 to 1970 as national title. This includes the Taça Brasil, it had clubs from all regions of Brazil and Torneio Roberto Gomes Pedrosa popularly known as "Robertão" ( Big Bob ), it had clubs from the most representative regions of Brazil.

History

All the big clubs from São Paulo, except Palmeiras, withdrew from the 1979 competition. They protested against the odd system of tier qualification which made their rivals, Palmeiras and Guarani, enter only in the final phase (due to them being previous-year finalists) and also asking for the same privileges. Indeed oddly enough, Guarani finished in the top 12 playing only 3 games and Palmeiras finished third despite playing only 5 games in a tournament with 96 entrants.

In 1984, Juventus, a small club from São Paulo, managed to qualify for the Série A. Participants of that year could be promoted from and relegated to Série B in the middle of the tournament. Juventus thus started the tournament in the premiership, was relegated in the middle of the tournament but eventually managed to clinch the Série B title. Despite this the team was not promoted to Série A in the following year and failed to qualify to it from the state championship.

In 1999, an averaging relegation system similar to the one used in the Primera División Argentina was adopted. The two clubs with the worst point results in the first stage of the two previous seasons were to be relegated. However, this system only lasted for a single season.

In 2005, each team played 42 games, 21 home and 21 away, for a total of 462 games. The champion and runner-up automatically qualified for the 2006 Copa Libertadores. The third and fourth placed teams may also represent Brazil in the Libertadores by defeating foreign clubs to be determined by CONMEBOL in pre-tournament trials. The champion and 5th through 11th placed teams also win the right to represent Brazil in the Copa Sudamericana, another South American championship of lower stature. The four lowest ranked teams (19th, 20th, 21st and 22nd) were relegated to the following year's Série B.

Eleven matches of the 2005 competition were annulled due to a match-fixing scandal and had to be replayed.

The seasons with the largest number of entrants of the competition were: 2000 (116 entrants), 1979 (94 entrants) and 1986 (80 entrants).

Format and competition rules

Since 2003, the Série A has been contested in a double round-robin format and the team with most points is declared champion. There is no final match, which is a very controversial subject. Prior to 2003, the Brazilian championship had traditionally been decided with some type of playoff format (most commonly the "Octagonal", where the top 8 regular season teams comprise a single elimination tournament), rather than the European model of points accumulation over a season. Although some purists complain that this system lacks the dramatic scenes of playoffs and finals, the competition has so far shown to be well balanced, without a small number of clubs dominating the league, a phenomenon often found in many European leagues.

For the 2006 season, the number of contestants was reduced to 20 and CBF claims it to be the "definitive" format. In 2006, a limit on the number of foreign players was set, such that no team can have more than 3 foreign players on the field or on the bench in a single match.

Statistics

The only club to win a championship undefeated was Internacional, in 1979, with 15 wins and 7 draws. Also, in a match between Goiás and Cruzeiro, in the same year, 14 players were sent off.

Roberto Dinamite is the player with most goals scored in Campeonato Brasileiro history. Dinamite scored 190 in 20 seasons (1971-1989).

As of 2007, only Cruzeiro, Flamengo, Internacional and Vasco participated in all editions of the Série A.

Teams currently playing Série A

Main article: Campeonato Brasileiro Série A 2008

There are 20 teams playing the Série A in 2008:

Champions of Série A

Official champions

Below is the table of Campeonato Brasileiro Série A champions according to the Brazilian Football Confederation:^[1]

Year	Winner		Runner-up	Comments	Entrants
1971 Details	Atlético Mineiro  MG		São Paulo  SP	Three-team final stage. Botafogo eventually finished third.	20
Year	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Comments	Entrants
1972 Details	Palmeiras  SP	0 - 0	Botafogo  RJ	Palmeiras declared champions due to better season record	26
Year	Winner		Runner-up	Comments	Entrants
1973 Details	Palmeiras  SP		São Paulo  SP	Four-team final stage. Palmeiras drew São Paulo 0-0 on last stage match	40
Year	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Comments	Entrants
1974 Details	Vasco  RJ	2 - 1	Cruzeiro  MG	Four-team final stage. Extra tie-break match	40
1975 Details	Internacional  RS	1 - 0	Cruzeiro  MG		46
1976 Details	Internacional  RS	2 - 0	Corinthians  SP		54
1977 Details	São Paulo  SP	0 - 0	Atlético Mineiro  MG	São Paulo won 3-2 on penalties.	60
1978 Details	Guarani  SP	1 - 0 1 - 0	Palmeiras  SP		74
1979 Details	Internacional  RS	2 - 0 2 - 1	Vasco  RJ	Internacional became champions without losing one single game, a deed yet unmatched.	96
1980 Details	Flamengo  RJ	0 - 1 3 - 2	Atlético Mineiro  MG		104
1981 Details	Grêmio  RS	2 - 1 1 - 0	São Paulo  SP		88
1982 Details	Flamengo  RJ	1 - 1 0 - 0 1 - 0	Grêmio  RS		88
1983 Details	Flamengo  RJ	1 - 2 3 - 0	Santos  SP		88
1984 Details	Fluminense  RJ	1 - 0 0 - 0	Vasco  RJ		72
1985 Details	Coritiba  PR	1 - 1	Bangu  RJ	Coritiba won 6-5 on penalties.	40
1986 Details	São Paulo  SP	1 - 1 3 - 3	Guarani  SP	São Paulo won 4-3 on penalties.	80
1987(1) Details	Sport  PE	1 - 1 1 - 0	Guarani  SP	Four-team final stage turned home-and-away playoff	32
1988 Details	Bahia  BA	2 - 1 0 - 0	Internacional  RS		24
1989 Details	Vasco  RJ	1 - 0	São Paulo  SP	Second final-series match unnecessary as Vasco had a better season record and won the away match	22
1990 Details	Corinthians  SP	1 - 0 1 - 0	São Paulo  SP		20
1991 Details	São Paulo  SP	1 - 0 0 - 0	Bragantino  SP		20
1992 Details	Flamengo  RJ	3 - 0 2 - 2	Botafogo  RJ		20
1993 Details	Palmeiras  SP	1 - 0 2 - 0	Vitória  BA		32
1994 Details	Palmeiras  SP	3 - 1 1 - 1	Corinthians  SP		24
1995 Details	Botafogo  RJ	2 - 1 1 - 1	Santos  SP		24
1996 Details	Grêmio  RS	0 - 2 2 - 0	Portuguesa  SP	Grêmio declared champions due to better season record.	24
1997 Details	Vasco  RJ	0 - 0 0 - 0	Palmeiras  SP	Vasco da Gama declared champions due to better season record	26
1998 Details	Corinthians  SP	2 - 2 1 - 1 2 - 0	Cruzeiro  MG		24
1999 Details	Corinthians  SP	2 - 3 2 - 0 0 - 0	Atlético Mineiro  MG		22
2000(2) Details	Vasco  RJ	1 - 1 3 - 1	São Caetano  SP	Organized by Clube dos 13 on CBF's behalf, and dubbed Copa João Havelange	116
2001 Details	Atlético Paranaense  PR	4 - 2 1 - 0	São Caetano  SP		28
2002 Details	Santos  SP	2 - 0 3 - 2	Corinthians  SP		26
Year	Winner		Runner-up	Comments	Entrants
2003 Details	Cruzeiro  MG 100 pts / 46 matches		Santos  SP 87 pts / 46 matches	From 2003 onwards, the regular season group play followed by play-offs was replaced by a double round-robin system. The team with the most points at the end of the season is declared the champion.	24
2004 Details	Santos  SP 89 pts / 46 matches		Atlético Paranaense  PR 86 pts / 46 matches		24
2005 Details	Corinthians  SP 81 pts / 42 matches		Internacional  RS 78 pts / 42 matches	A refereeing scandal led to refixturing of matches which turned the outcome of the original championship impossible to assert	22
2006 Details	São Paulo  SP 78 pts / 38 matches		Internacional  RS 69 pts / 38 matches		20
2007 Details	São Paulo  SP 77 pts / 38 matches		Santos  SP 62 pts / 38 matches	São Paulo becomes the first team to officially win five Brazilian championships.	20

Unofficial champions

Below is the champion and runner-up of the 1987 Copa União, which is a competition organized by the Clube dos 13, but it is not recognized by the Brazilian Football Confederation as a Campeonato Brasileiro. However, several sources list them as that year champions together or instead of the official champion:^[2]

Year	Winner		Runner-up	Comments	Entrants
1987(1) Details	Flamengo  RJ	1 - 1 1 - 0	Internacional  RS	Organized by Clube dos 13, dubbed Copa União, not recognized by CBF, but recognized by the Clube dos 13, and CND[3]	16

Titles by team

Below are the titles by team, according to the Brazilian Football Confederation, thus excluding the 1987 Copa União, won by Flamengo:

Club	State	Titles
São Paulo	São Paulo	5 titles
Corinthians	São Paulo	4 titles
Flamengo (1)	Rio de Janeiro	4 titles (not counting the 1987 Copa União)
Palmeiras	São Paulo	4 titles
Vasco(2)	Rio de Janeiro	4 titles
Internacional	Rio Grande do Sul	3 titles
Grêmio	Rio Grande do Sul	2 titles
Santos	São Paulo	2 titles
Atlético-MG	Minas Gerais	1 title
Atlético-PR	Paraná	1 title
Bahia	Bahia	1 title
Botafogo	Rio de Janeiro	1 title
Coritiba	Paraná	1 title
Cruzeiro	Minas Gerais	1 title
Fluminense	Rio de Janeiro	1 title
Guarani	São Paulo	1 title
Sport(1)	Pernambuco	1 title

Titles by state

Below are the titles by state, according to the Brazilian Football Confederation, thus excluding the 1987 Copa União, won by Flamengo of Rio de Janeiro state:

State	Titles
São Paulo	16 titles
Rio de Janeiro	10 titles(1) (2) (not counting the 1987 Copa União)
Rio Grande do Sul	5 titles
Minas Gerais	2 titles
Paraná	2 titles
Bahia	1 title
Pernambuco	1 title(1)

¹The championship of 1987 was controversial as CBF faced scission from Clube dos 13 which decided to organize the 1987 premiership on its own. The latter, dubbed Copa União, had Flamengo and Internacional as champion and runner-up. Despite signing an agreement with CBF in order avoid being banned by FIFA, both teams backed by Clube dos 13 decided not to match their title with CBF's tournament winners in order to unify the title. As a result, the CBF disqualified the two teams from the finals and awarded the title to Sport, who had won the yellow module, organized by the confederation.

² The championship was not organised by CBF because Gama, in the 1999 championship, contested and won in a common justice court and reverted its relegation. CBF was thus legally impeached of organizing it without including Gama and asked Clube dos 13 to act as a proxy while backing the competition. The rules reproduced roughly previous tournaments with a regular season and play-offs, though all teams legally had to be able to dispute, thus 1999 clubs were not relegated. Due to another justice decision, Gama was included in the championship. The competition was officially recognized by the Brazilian Football Confederation.^[1]

See also

• Campeonato Brasileiro Série B, the second division of Brazilian football
• Campeonato Brasileiro Série C, the third division of Brazilian football
• Campeonato Brasileiro Série D, the fourth division of Brazilian football
• Campeonato Brasileiro Sub-20, the official U-20 national football tournament
• Brazilian Football State Championship, the football competitions in the 26 states of Brazil and the Federal District
• Copa do Brasil, the national cup competition
• Torneio Rio-São Paulo, the inter-state compeition between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the two strongest football states at the era, held from 1950 to 1966
• Torneio Roberto Gomes Pedrosa, the national tournament from 1967 to 1970
• Taça Brasil, the national cup from 1959 to 1968
• Football in Brazil

References

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} (Portuguese) "Campeonato Brasileiro Série A - Campeões". Brazilian Football Confederation. Retrieved on 2008-06-30.
2. ↑ "Brazil - List of Champions". RSSSF. Retrieved on 2008-06-30.
3. ↑ (Portuguese) "Ex-presidente do CND firma: 'O Flamengo é penta'". Lance!. Retrieved on 2008-04-25.

External links

• CBF Confederação Brasileira de Futebol - Brazilian Football Confederation
• RSSSF Brazil links
• zerozero.pt
• Map of Serie A club locations
• Futpedia The Brazilian Football Encyclopedia, with historical statistics about championships, clubs, games, athletes, and more (Portuguese).

Campeonato Brasileiro Série A 2009
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