ABC Futebol Clube, commonly referred to as ABC, is a Brazilian professional club based in

Natal NATAL or Natal may refer to: Places * Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, a city in Brazil * Natal, South Africa (disambiguation), a region in South Africa ** Natalia Republic, a former country (1839–1843) ** Colony of Natal, a former British colony ...

Rio Grande do Norte Rio Grande do Norte (, , ) is one of the states of Brazil. It is located in the northeastern region of the country, forming the northeasternmost tip of the South American continent. The name literally translates as "Great Northern River", ref ...

founded on 29 June 1915. It competes in the

Campeonato Brasileiro Série B The Campeonato Brasileiro Série B is commonly referred to as the Brasileirão Série B (Série B), and until 2022 was officially called Brasileirão Sportingbet by sponsorship reasons. It is the second tier of the Brazilian football league system ...

, the second tier of

Brazilian football Football is the most popular sport in Brazil and a prominent part of the country’s national identity. The Brazil national football team has won the FIFA World Cup five times, the most of any team, in 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002. Brazil an ...

, as well as in the

Campeonato Potiguar The Campeonato Potiguar is the football league of the state of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. Format First Division First stage: standard round-robin, in which all teams play each other once. Second stage: home-and-away playoffs between the to ...

, the top flight of the Rio Grande do Norte state football league. ABC is the top ranked team from Rio Grande do Norte in CBF's national club ranking, at 47th overall.

History

At precisely 13 hours on June 29, 1915, a group of young men belonging to the elites of the state of Rio Grande do Norte met in Rio Branco Avenue, in the back of the Carlos Gomes Theatre, now known as the Alberto Maranhão Theatre, to decide about the creation of the first football club of the state. The club's foundation ceremony occurred in the house of Avelino Alves Freire, a respected merchant in the state. The first subject to decide in the meeting was the name of the club. One of the founders, José Pinheiro, gives the idea of calling the new club as ABC Futebol Clube in which it was unanimously approved. The name ABC is given in honour of the pact of fraternal friendship which was diplomatically supported by three countries:

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, and

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

, called the ABC Pact, whose letters refer to the initials of the three countries. The team incorporated on December 13, 1927, when the state's football league registered the club charter. ABC's first interstate match was in 1917, defeating Santa Cruz of

Recife That it may shine on all ( Matthew 5:15) , image_map = Brazil Pernambuco Recife location map.svg , mapsize = 250px , map_caption = Location in the state of Pernambuco , pushpin_map = Brazil#South A ...

Pernambuco Pernambuco () is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.6 million people as of 2020, making it seventh-most populous state of Brazil and with around 98,148 km², being the 19 ...

2–1. ABC is in the Guinness Book for having won ten consecutive state championships from 1932 to 1941, sharing this record with América Mineiro, that won ten consecutive titles from 1916 to 1925. The team also is the team with the most state championship titles in Brazil, holding 57 titles. In 1979,

Rivelino Roberto Rivellino (also Rivelino, ; ; born 1 January 1946) is a Brazilian football pundit and retired footballer. He was one of the stars of Brazil's 1970 FIFA World Cup winning team. Rivellino currently works as a pundit for Brazilian TV Cult ...

played for ABC in a 1–1 friendly match against

Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira (; ; c. 1460s – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea. His initial voyage to India by way of Cape of Good Hope (1497–1499) was the first to link E ...

. In the same year ABC played against the Brazil Olympic team, losing 1–0. The club won the Série C in

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

after beating

Ituiutaba Ituiutaba (Brazilian Portuguese: /itujuˈtabɐ/) is a municipality in the western part of Minas Gerais state, Brazil. Elevated to city status in 1901, its population in 2020 was 105,255 and a total area in the municipality of 2,694 km2. Th ...

in the final.

Stadium

The club owns Estádio Maria Lamas Farache, nicknamed ''Frasqueirão'', which has a maximum capacity of 18,000.

Players

''As of April 26, 2015''

Out on loan

Honours

Campeonato Brasileiro Série C The Campeonato Brasileiro Série C is the third tier of the Brazilian football league system. Unlike the first and second divisions, the Série C is not played in a double round robin system, arguably because many participating teams lack the f ...

: Winners (1):

Runner-up: Boa Esporte *

: Winners (57): 1920, 1921, 1923, 1925, 1926, 1928, 1929, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1944, 1945, 1947, 1950, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1965, 1966, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1976, 1978, 1983, 1984, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022

References

*''Enciclopédia do Futebol Brasileiro'', Volume 1 – Lance, Rio de Janeiro: Aretê Editorial S/A, 2001. *''Especial Placar – 500 Times do Brasil'', São Paulo: Editora Abril: 2003.

External links

Official site
{{Campeonato Brasileiro Série B ABC Futebol Clube

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

Association football clubs established in 1915 Natal, Rio Grande do Norte 1915 establishments in Brazil