Campeonato Brasileiro Série A

Campeonato Brasileiro Série A
Brasileirão

Countries	Brasil
Confederation	CONMEBOL
Founded	1971
Number of teams	20
Levels on pyramid	1
Relegation to	Série B
Domestic cup(s)	Copa do Brasil
International cup(s)	Copa Libertadores Copa Sudamericana
Current champions	Flamengo (2009)
Most championships	São Paulo (6 times)
TV partners	Rede Globo Rede Bandeirantes SporTV
Website	http://www.cbf.com.br/seriea
2010 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A

The Campeonato Brasileiro da Série A (popularly known as Brasileirão) is the highest division of Brazilian association football. It is composed of 20 teams; currently, the bottom four teams in Série A ("Series A") are relegated and the top four teams in Série B ("Series B") are promoted. São Paulo has been the most successful team in the competition, having won it on six occasions.

Due to historical peculiarities and the large geographical size of the country, Brazil has a relatively short history of nation-wide football competitions. The modern Campeonato Brasileiro only started in 1971, supported by the military regime of the time and made easier by the advancements in civil aviation and air transport. Before the establishment of a national league the most prestigious football competitions in Brazil were the state leagues, notably the Campeonato Paulista and Campeonato Carioca state championships (the tournaments of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro states). Most state competitions have a much longer history than the national competition and, consequently, the various state leagues were considered more prestigious than the national league during the first years.

Controversies aside, the Brazilian Football Confederation (CFB) does not officially recognize the national tournaments from 1959 to 1970 as national titles, even though they were organized by the Brazilian Sports Confederation (CBD), CBF's predecessor from 1919 to 1979. This includes the Taça Brasil, which featured clubs from all regions of Brazil and Torneio Roberto Gomes Pedrosa, popularly known as "Robertão", which featured clubs from the most representative regions of Brazil.

History

The Campeonato Brasileiro was created in 1971 using the structure of Torneio Roberto Gomes Pedrosa. The system used until 1987 was similar to FIFA World Cup or UEFA Champions League: the best clubs of each State Championship were separated in several small groups. Then the best of each group played the play-offs. But every year some aspects of format, number of entrants and rules changed.

In 1979, all big clubs from São Paulo, except Palmeiras, withdrew from 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 1987 the 13 biggest clubs of Brazil founded an association called Clube dos 13, in order to make their own commercial arrangements without CBF's mediation. As a result, these clubs broke up with CBF and organized their own parallel league called Copa União, which replaced the old system which classified the state champions for the national championship. Immediately FIFA intervened threatening clubs and National Team to ban them from participating in international competitions. So Clube dos 13 accept to make a competition with CBF but maintaining Copa União format. In the final of the championship a disagreement allong the sistem resulted in two champions: Sport Recife, supported by CBF and the Justice, and Flamengo, supported by Club dos 13 and a great part of media. From 1988 to 2003 Copa União system continued to be used with some changes every year.

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. During the first stage it was discovered that one player was registered with false documents. Due to this scandal CBF decided to punish the player's team cancelling the games in which this player took part. Due to this, the average points of some clubs were changed so one club lost positions and was relegated. This club immediately sued CBF, so this institution was prevented to host 2000 Brasileirão. In light of this, Clube dos 13 organized the championship of that year.

Before 2003, the format of Série A changed almost every year; for specifics, see Campeonato Brasileiro tournament scheduling. 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.

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

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 three foreign players on the field or on the bench in a single match. The seasons with the largest number of entrants of the competition were: 2000 (116 entrants), 1979 (94 entrants) and 1986 (80 entrants).

Since 2008, the champion, runner-up and third placed directly qualify to Copa Libertadores. The fourth placed team may also represent Brazil in the Libertadores by defeating foreign clubs to be determined by CONMEBOL in pre-tournament trials. The 5th through 12th 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 are relegated to the following year's Série B.

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.

In 1977 Atlético-MG had ended undefeated, but they lost to São Paulo in penalties.

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

As of 2009, only Cruzeiro, Flamengo and Internacional have participated in all editions of the Série A.

In 2003 Cruzeiro won their first title with the best campaign in the history of Campeonato Brasileiro, finishing with 100 points and 106 goals at the end of the year.

All-time most appearances

*As of May, 2010

All-time most appearances in Campeonato Brasileiro Série A
(Série A appearances only)

Rank	Player	Apps
1	Rogério Ceni	384
2	Zinho	370
3	Clemer	367
4	Ramon	349
5	Cléber	337
6	Wladimir	330
7	Roberto Dinamite	328
8	Tarciso	327
9	Harlei	321
10	Edmundo	316
(Italics denotes players still playing professional football) (bold denotes players still playing in the Brazilian Série A).[1]

All-time top scorers

*As of May, 2010

All-time top scorers in Campeonato Brasileiro Série A
(Série A goals only)

Rank	Player	Goals
1	Roberto Dinamite	190
2	Romário	154
3	Edmundo	153
4	Zico	135
5	Túlio	129
6	Serginho Chulapa	127
7	Washington	115
8	Dadá Maravilha	113
9	Ramon	97
10	Dodô	96
(Italics denotes players still playing professional football) (bold denotes players still playing in te Brazilian Série A).[1]

Awards and trophies

Prêmio Craque do Brasileirão is the league's official award. Placar magazine's Bola de Ouro is the oldest award, while the Troféu Osmar Santos and the Troféu João Saldanha are awards given by the newspaper Lance!.

Teams currently playing Série A

There are 20 teams qualified to play in 2010:

-Avaí

-Atlético Goianiense

-Atlético Mineiro

-Atlético Paranaense

-Botafogo

-Ceará

-Corinthians

-Cruzeiro

-Flamengo

-Fluminense

-Goiás

-Grêmio

-Grêmio
Prudente

-Guarani

-Internacional

-Palmeiras

-Santos

-São Paulo

-Vasco da Gama

-Vitória

Champions of Série A

Official champions

Below is the table of Campeonato Brasileiro Série A champions according to the Brazilian Football Confederation:^[2]

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 with São Paulo by 0X0 on last stage match	40
Year	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Comments	Entrants
1974 Details	Vasco da Gama  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 da Gama  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 da Gama  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 da Gama  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 da Gama  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 da Gama  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 a controversial refixturing of 11 matches, the original outcome changing in the majority of games	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
2008 Details	São Paulo  SP 75 pts / 38 matches		Grêmio  RS 72 pts / 38 matches	São Paulo becomes the first team to be officially recognized by Brazilian Football Confederation as having won 6 Brazilian championships as well as winning it 3 times in a row.	20
2009 Details	Flamengo  RJ 67 pts / 38 matches		Internacional  RS 65 pts / 38 matches		20

Unofficial champions

At odds with the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), which could not come up with a formula for the national championship, the thirteen most popular clubs in Brazil created a league, known as the Clube dos 13, to organize a tournament of their own. This championship was called Copa União and was run by the 16 clubs that took part in it (Santa Cruz, Coritiba and Goiás were invited to join), completely free from CBF authority (a move not unlike the creation of club-administered football leagues all over Europe).

Left to organize a championship without the big thirteen, which would have been a huge fiasco, the CBF came up with a formula that would force the champions and the runner-ups of the Copa União to face the best two teams of the tournament the CBF itself had promoted, also called Módulo Amarelo (Yellow Module). The move, however, was never approved by the Clube dos 13, which rejected any play-off between their own champions and those of the CBF tournament.

Consequently, Flamengo and Internacional, winners and runner-ups of the Copa União, refused to face Sport and Guarani, which had shared the Yellow Module title after deciding to interrupt a penalty shoot-out. Since Flamengo and Internacional did not show up, the CBF championship finals consisted only of a rematch of the Yellow Module finals. In the first game, in Campinas, both teams tied 1-1. On February 7, 1988, Sport beat Guarani 1-0 and became the first Northeastern team to win the national title (a feat only matched by Bahia in the 1988 championship).

Clube dos 13 and the Sports National Council, the competent judicial body to settle the issue at the time, both ruled in favour of Flamengo and Internacional, thus declaring Flamengo as the 1987 Brazilian Champions. The CBF, however, regardless of the CND decision, declared Sport to be the national champions, and the club, along with Guarani, represented Brazil in the 1988 Copa Libertadores de América.

Despite not being recognized by the CBF, several sources list Flamengo and Internacional as respectively the 1987's winners and runner-ups together or instead of the official ones:^[3]

Year	Winner	Score	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[4]	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	6 titles
Flamengo(1)	Rio de Janeiro	5 titles
Corinthians	São Paulo	4 titles
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
Guarani	São Paulo	1 title
Fluminense	Rio de Janeiro	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 (from Rio de Janeiro state):

State	Titles
São Paulo	17 titles
Rio de Janeiro	12 titles(1)
Rio Grande do Sul	5 titles
Minas Gerais	2 titles
Paraná	2 titles
Bahia	1 title
Pernambuco	1 title(1)

Titles by decade

Top scorers

Below is a list of the last ten years Campeonato Brasileiro Série A top scorers:

Year	Player	Club	State	Goals
2000	Dill	Goiás	Goiás	20
	Magno Alves	Fluminense	Rio de Janeiro	20
	Romário	Vasco da Gama	Rio de Janeiro	20
2001	Romário	Vasco da Gama	Rio de Janeiro	21
2002	Luís Fabiano	São Paulo	São Paulo	19
	Rodrigo Fabri	Grêmio	Rio Grande do Sul	19
2003	Dimba	Goiás	Goiás	30
2004	Washington	Atlético Paranaense	Paraná	34
2005	Romário	Vasco da Gama	Rio de Janeiro	22
2006	Souza	Goiás	Goiás	17
2007	Josiel	Paraná	Paraná	20
2008	Washington	Fluminense	Rio de Janeiro	21
	Keirrison	Coritiba	Paraná	21
	Kléber Pereira	Santos	São Paulo	21
2009	Adriano	Flamengo	Rio de Janeiro	19
	Diego Tardelli	Atlético Mineiro	Minas Gerais	19

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 competition 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

External links

• CBF Confederação Brasileira de Futebol - Brazilian Football Confederation
• RSSSF Brazil links
• Best Attendances 1971/2008
• zerozero.pt
• Map of Serie A club locations
• Futpedia The Brazilian Football Encyclopedia, with historical statistics about championships, clubs, games, athletes, and more (Portuguese).
• Champions Squads