Brazilian soccer: a guide

From about January through April, the 26 Brazilian states, plus the Federal District, run their own tournaments. The formats vary by state, so let’s look at two of the biggest.

In Waltinho’s state, Rio de Janeiro, the top 16 teams — the First Division — play two consecutive tournaments, not totally unlike what happened in the strike-shortened 1981 Major League Baseball season, except they do it on purpose. In the Rio Cup, the teams are divided into two groups, playing the other seven teams in their group once each. The top two teams from each group make the semi-finals, and the ultimate winner qualifies for the eventual state championship. Then they do it all over again for the Guanabara Cup. The winner of each cup meets for a two-game total-goal affair. (This year, Flamengo beat Botafogo on penalty kicks.) If the same team wins both the Rio and Guanabara Cups, there is no championship game. Which is just plain weird. But so is having a guy on your team just for punting.

In Sao Paulo state, the First Division consists of the top 20 teams, except it’s not called the First Division, it’s called Series A1. They play one another once each, and the top four teams at the end make the semi-finals. The playoffs are decided in home-and-home matches. This year, the winner was Corinthians.

But because teams from the city of Sao Paulo and nearby port city Santos are so dominant and often take the top four spots, the top four teams from the “interior” of the state that don’t make the semi-finals have their own playoffs to determine the “Interior Champion.” Those winners often have really cool indigenous team names, like the 2007 champion, Guaratingueta.

In states with several divisions, like Sao Paulo and Rio, the bottom teams of the top division switch places with the top teams of the next division for the following season.

Please note that during the state seasons, there are two other events going on involving many of the same teams: a national tournament called the Brazil Cup and a Latin American championship called the Libertadores Cup. More on those later.

In May, the Brazilian Championship, which has no relationship with the Brazil Cup, begins. There are four levels: Series A, Series B, Series C, and starting this year, Series D. This is sort of, but not quite, like the baseball majors and the minors. A,B and C have 20 teams from across Brazil, and D has 40. Until this year, C had 64. What happened to the four teams that are now in neither C or D is beyond the scope of this article. In Series A, each team plays 38 games — two matches against each of the others.

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