The 2018 Campeonato Carioca de Futebol was the 115th edition of the top tier of

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

of FFERJ (Federação de Futebol do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, or Rio de Janeiro State Football Federation). The top four teams in the final standings of the tournament not otherwise qualified competed in the 2019 Copa do Brasil. The top three teams not competing in any level of the national Campeonato Brasileiro qualified for the 2019 Brasileiro Série D. The format remained unchanged from the 2017 edition. In the First Round, six teams played a round-robin tournament, with the top two teams qualified for the main competition and the bottom four entering the Relegation Round. The main competition was divided into two tournaments, the

Taça Guanabara The Taça Guanabara, or Guanabara Cup, is a football tournament organized annually since 1965 by the Rio de Janeiro State Football Federation. In its first four editions (1965, 1966, 1967 and 1968), the Taça Guanabara was a tournament in its o ...

and

Taça Rio Taça Rio, or Rio Trophy, is an annual Rio de Janeiro football tournament. It is the second stage competition of the Campeonato Carioca, the state football championship in Rio de Janeiro. It has been organized since 1982 by the Rio de Janeiro ...

, each with two 6-team groups. The top two placed teams in each of the groups qualified to contest the state title. The top four teams in the final standings qualified automatically for the Final Round (the Taça Guanabara and Taça Rio champions). The Final Round was a knockout-style playoff with a two-legged final played at the Maracanã Stadium. in

Macaé Macaé () is a municipality located in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro, 180 km northeast of the state capital. It is the birthplace of the 13th president of Brazil, Washington Luís. Location Macaé is generally considered to be ...

was punished with the loss of 26 points by TJD-RJ by irregular escalation of left-side Luke Gabriel in six matches of the

Participating teams

First round

The First Round was contested in a round-robin format from 20 December 2017 to 13 January 2018 by six teams: the two final teams from the 2017 Campeonato Carioca Série B1 (

Goytacaz Goytacaz might refer to: * Goytacaz Futebol Clube, Brazilian football club * Goytacaz language, Brazilian language * Campos dos Goytacazes Campos dos Goytacazes () is a municipality located in the northern region of Rio de Janeiro State, Bra ...

and America), the bottom two teams from the 2017 Campeonato Carioca main competition ( Resende and

), and the two surviving teams from the 2017 Campeonato Carioca Relegation Round ( Cabofriense and Bonsucesso). The two top placed teams qualified to contest 2018 Campeonato Carioca, one team each placed in Group A and Group B. The remaining four teams contested in the 2018 Relegation Round.

Championship round

The Championship Round was two competitions: Taça Guanabara and Taça Rio. The twelve clubs were into two groups of six, Group A and Group B. The traditional "big four" teams of Rio de Janeiro (

Flamengo Clube de Regatas do Flamengo (; English: ''Flamengo Rowing Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Flamengo, is a Brazilian sports club based in Rio de Janeiro, in the neighborhood of Gávea, best known for their professional football ...

Botafogo Botafogo (local/standard alternative Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: ) is a beachfront neighborhood ('' bairro'') in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a mostly upper middle class and small commerce community, and is located between the hills of ...

Fluminense Fluminense Football Club (), known as Fluminense, is a Brazilian sports club best known for its professional football team that competes in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, the first tier of Brazilian football and the Campeonato Carioca, th ...

, and Vasco da Gama) were separated with two teams placed in each group. Each round had its own four-team playoff featuring the top two teams of each group. The Taça Rio was followed by a four-team Final playoff featuring the top four teams of the combined table across both competitions (the competition playoff champion(s) automatically qualified for the Final playoff).

Taça Guanabara The Taça Guanabara, or Guanabara Cup, is a football tournament organized annually since 1965 by the Rio de Janeiro State Football Federation. In its first four editions (1965, 1966, 1967 and 1968), the Taça Guanabara was a tournament in its o ...

The Taça Guanabara was played from 16 January 2018 to 4 February 2018. It was a single round-robin format with each team playing one match with the teams of their own group. The two top point teams qualified for the knockout stage of the competition. The champion of Taça Guanabara qualified to the Final Stage.

Knockout stage

= Semi-finals

= ----

= Final

Taça Rio Taça Rio, or Rio Trophy, is an annual Rio de Janeiro football tournament. It is the second stage competition of the Campeonato Carioca, the state football championship in Rio de Janeiro. It has been organized since 1982 by the Rio de Janeiro ...

The Taça Rio tournament was from 19 February 2018 to 18 March 2018. Group A and Group B remained the same as in Taça Guanabara, but each team played a single match round-robin against the teams of the other group. The top two teams in points in each group qualified for the knockout stage of the competition. The champion of Taça Rio qualified to the Final Stage.

Knockout stage

= Semi-finals

= ----

= Final

Relegation playoffs

The Relegation Round was played from 20 January 2018 to 4 March 2018 in a double round-robin format. The two top placed teams qualified for the First Round of the 2019 Campeonato Carioca and the two placed bottom teams were relegated to the

2019 Campeonato Carioca Série B1 The 2019 Campeonato Carioca Série B1 was the 39th edition of the second division of football in Rio de Janeiro. The contest is organized by FERJ. Since 2017, the Campeonato Carioca Série B has been called the Série B1. Friburguense were champi ...

Overall table

Final stage

Semi-finals

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Final

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Awards

Team of the year

Top scorers

References

{{2018 in Brazilian football Campeonato Carioca seasons

Carioca Carioca ( or ) is a demonym used to refer to anything related to the City of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil. The original meaning of the term is controversial, maybe from Tupi language "''kari' oka''", meaning "white house" as the whitewashed stone ...