James Lelliott
Contrary to the domestic football calendars we are accustomed to in Europe, Brazil has a fascinating system made up of two football pyramids that run independently to one another, with clubs often competing in both. Whether or not this is a good system probably depends on who you ask, or the size of the club you follow, but this a very brief introduction to these formats.
Campeonato Brasileiro
The Campeonato Brasileiro, also referred to as the Brasileirão, is essentially Brazil’s national football league pyramid and consists of four divisions, with Série A being the top flight and Série D sitting at the foot of the pyramid. The top two divisions run at a national level but, similarly to Spain, the third and fourth tiers are divided into regional groups. The CBF (Confederação Brasileira de Futebol, Brazilian Football Federation) oversees this pyramid, and each campaign begins in May and runs through the Brazilian winter before reaching its conclusion in December, usually around the time of the FIFA Club World Cup.
State Championships
This is where things get interesting…
The beginning of the calendar year in Brazil sees all 27 states (if you include the Federal District) kick off their own State Championships, which, on the contrary to the Campeonato Brasileiro, are organised by each state’s own football federation. These tournaments generally begin in January/February and run through to April, before the national competition gets underway. Due to the fact that these championships are run independently from the nationwide competition, it is actually possible for a team to be in a higher division of the national pyramid than in their respective regional pyramid. That said, the highest ranking teams in the various state competitions (that aren’t already placed in Série A-C) are rewarded by the CBF with a spot in Série D, so there is some overlap here.
Opinion is widely divided on the State Championships in Brazil. On the one hand there are people who see them as obsolete and a hindrance to the national game, while supporters of the system value their traditional element and the unparalleled ecstasy of beating their local rivals in their respective clássico. Given the sheer vastness of the country, football has pretty much always been more widely followed and celebrated at a regional level rather than nationwide; there was no conventional national league in Brazil until 1971, and State Championships continued to be widely regarded as the major prize for any club until the 1990s.
Copa do Brasil
This is where we see some more crossover between the national and regional pyramids – the best placed teams in the various State Championships, as well as the highest ranked clubs by the CBF, qualify for the Copa do Brasil, which runs from March to November. Since 2017, the competition has been made up of 91 clubs, and a new development for the 2021 competition has seen it reduced from 8 to 7 rounds, with the larger clubs now entering in the third round. This is essentially Brazil’s equivalent of the FA Cup, however the ties are played over two legs rather the English equivalent’s single-leg fixtures. The ‘away goal’ rule is also in play here, but the most unique aspect of the Copa do Brasil for me (and quite possibly in any cup competition I’m aware of) is that, in the first two rounds of the competition, if the away team wins the first leg by two or more goals then they automatically qualify for the next round, thus avoiding having to play a second leg.
Brazilian domestic football has never reached the global heights that the major European leagues boast, and there are a number of factors that contribute to this lack of fulfilled potential, but that’s a post for another day…
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