The Copa do Brasil ( en, Brazil Cup) is a knockout
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 ...
competition played by 92 teams, representing all
26 Brazilian states plus the
Federal District
A federal district is a type of administrative division of a federation, usually under the direct control of a federal government and organized sometimes with a single municipal body. Federal districts often include capital districts, and they e ...
. It is the Brazilian domestic cup and the Brazilian equivalent of the
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...
,
Taça de Portugal
The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of Portugal") is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Placard since the 2015–16 seaso ...
,
Copa del Rey
The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footbal ...
,
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,[Copa Argentina
The Copa Argentina (English: ''Argentine Cup''), officially known as the "Copa Argentina AXION energy" due to sponsorship reasons, is an official football cup competition organized by the Argentine Football Association (AFA), with the aim of qual ...](_blank)
. The Copa do Brasil is an opportunity for teams from smaller states to play against the big teams. The winner of the cup automatically qualifies for the following edition of the
Copa Libertadores de América
The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club association football, football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level ...
, the most prestigious continental football tournament contested by top clubs in
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
organized by
CONMEBOL
The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL, , or CSF; es, Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol; pt, Confederação Sul-Americana de Futebol) is the continental governing body of football in South America (apart from Guyana, Suri ...
.
Initially the Copa do Brasil was contested by 32 clubs. The field increased to 40 in 1996, increased to 69 by the year of 2000, and stabilized at 64 after 2001 which it remained at until 2012. Clubs from all
26 Brazilian states and the
Federal District
A federal district is a type of administrative division of a federation, usually under the direct control of a federal government and organized sometimes with a single municipal body. Federal districts often include capital districts, and they e ...
participate.
From 2001 to 2012, the Copa do Brasil was played in the first half of the year and in those seasons, due to busy
scheduling
A schedule or a timetable, as a basic time-management tool, consists of a list of times at which possible task (project management), tasks, events, or actions are intended to take place, or of a sequence of events in the chronological order ...
, teams playing in the Copa Libertadores did not participate in the Copa do Brasil in the same year. Thus, the Copa do Brasil champion never defended their title in the next edition, since they would be qualified for the Copa Libertadores that year.
From 2013 to 2015, 87 teams participate in the cup and the teams that compete in the Copa Libertadores join the Copa do Brasil directly in the Round of 16. Also, the best 8 teams from the previous year's
Campeonato Brasileiro Série A
The Campeonato Brasileiro Série A (; English: "Brazilian Championship A Series"), commonly referred to as the Brasileirão (; English: "Big Brazilian"), and also known as Brasileirão Assaí due to sponsorship with Assaí Atacadista, is a Br ...
eliminated up to the third round qualify for
Copa Sudamericana
The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, named as ''Copa Sudamericana'' (; pt, Copa Sul-Americana ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club competition in South American ...
. In 2016, the competition was played by 86 clubs. From 2017 to 2020 the cup was contested by 91 teams but in 2021 the number of participants was increased to 92.
Starting in 2021, the tournament has been sponsored by Intelbras and is thus currently known as the Copa Intelbras do Brasil ( en, Intelbras Brazil Cup) for sponsorship reasons.
Cruzeiro is the most successful club, having won the competition six times, followed by
Gremio with 5 titles,
Palmeiras
Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras (), commonly known as Palmeiras, is a Brazilian professional football club based in the city of São Paulo, in the district of Perdizes. Palmeiras is one of the most popular clubs in South America, with around ...
and
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 t ...
with 4,
Corinthians
The First Epistle to the Corinthians ( grc, Α΄ ᾽Επιστολὴ πρὸς Κορινθίους) is one of the Pauline epistles, part of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The epistle is attributed to Paul the Apostle and a co-aut ...
with 3, and
Atlético Mineiro
Atlético, Spanish for ''athletics'', or Athletico in English, may refer to:
Sports Teams Athletico
*Athletico SC (Lebanon), a Lebanese football academy
*Athletic Bilbao, or Atletico Bilbao, Basque students athletic club (also forming Athletic Cl ...
with 2. Another 10 clubs have won one edition of the competition, resulting in a total of 16 champions. The state with the highest number of titles is
São Paulo
São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...
, with 10. Only two states have champions from more than one city: São Paulo (
Jundiaí
Jundiaí is a municipality in the state of São Paulo, in the Southeast Region of Brazil, located north of São Paulo. The population of the city is 423,006 (2020 est.), with an area of 431.21 km². The elevation is 761 m.
The GDP of the ...
,
Santo André
Santo ('saint' in various languages) may refer to:
People
* Santo (given name)
* Santo (surname)
* El Santo, Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta (1917–1984), Mexican wrestler and actor
* Bob Santo or Santo, stage name of Ghanaian comedian John Evans Kwadwo ...
,
Santos and
São Paulo
São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...
) and Rio Grande do Sul (
Caxias do Sul
Caxias do Sul (), is a city in Rio Grande do Sul, Southern Brazil, situated in the state's mountainous Serra Gaúcha region. It was established by Italian immigrants on June 20, 1890. Today it is the second largest city in the state of Rio Gr ...
and
Porto Alegre
Porto Alegre (, , Brazilian ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Its population of 1,488,252 inhabitants (2020) makes it the List of largest cities in Brazil, twelfth most populous city in the country ...
).
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...
is the only city with more than two champion clubs (Flamengo,
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, ...
and
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 ...
).
Format
The competition is a
single elimination
A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...
knockout tournament
A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking ...
featuring
two-legged tie
In sports (particularly association football), a two-legged tie is a contest between two teams which comprises two matches or "legs", with each team as the home team in one leg. The winning team is usually determined by aggregate score, the sum o ...
s. In the first two rounds, if the away team wins the first match by 2 or more goals, it progresses straight to the next round avoiding the second leg. The
away goals rule
The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaker, tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the ...
is used in the Copa do Brasil, which is an unusual feature when compared to other
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
n competitions (the Copa Libertadores did not adopt this rule until 2005). However, the away goals rule is not applied if both teams are from the same city.
Since the tournament's creation in 1989, the winner of the tournament qualifies for the next year's
Copa Libertadores de América
The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club association football, football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level ...
.
Eligible teams
The eligible teams to compete in the Copa do Brasil are the previous year's Copa do Brasil champion, the 70 best-placed clubs in the
state championships
The Brazilian states football championships are the professional adult male soccer competitions in Brazil that take place between January and April for the Northeast, Central-West, Southeast and South regions. In some states from the North Reg ...
(in which the number of spots per state range from one to five clubs), the top six clubs from the previous year's
Campeonato Brasileiro Série A
The Campeonato Brasileiro Série A (; English: "Brazilian Championship A Series"), commonly referred to as the Brasileirão (; English: "Big Brazilian"), and also known as Brasileirão Assaí due to sponsorship with Assaí Atacadista, is a Br ...
, the
Copa do Nordeste
Copa do Nordeste (''Cup of the North-East''), also known as Campeonato do Nordeste (''Championship of the North-East'') or Copa Nordeste (''Northeastern Cup''), and sometimes informally referred as Lampions League – in reference to the UEFA Ch ...
(Northeast Cup) champion, the
Copa Verde
The Copa Verde ( en, Green Cup) is an annual regional knockout football competition in Brazil that started in 2014, and played by 24 teams from the North and Central-West regions, plus Espírito Santo (Espírito Santo state was included because ...
(Green Cup) champion, the ten highest-ranked clubs in CBF's ranking not already qualified, and two of the following: the Brazilian champion of the most recent Copa Libertadores (if there is one), the Brazilian champion of the most recent Copa Sudamericana (if there is one), the 7th place team of Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, or the champion of
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 7 Brazilians teams in the
Copa Libertadores da América
The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in S ...
, the best placed teams in the previous year's
Série A and
Série B (or the champion of Copa Libertadores and/or Copa Sudamericana, if it is a Brazilian team) and Copa do Nordeste and Copa Verde's Title Holders will join the Copa do Brasil directly in Round of 16.
History
The Copa do Brasil was created in 1989 to appease the state soccer federations with fewer large and traditional clubs on the national stage, whose representatives would hardly have the opportunity to face big clubs during the year. This concern arose after a decrease in the number of participants in the 1987 Campeonato Brasileiro, when 13 of the biggest clubs in Brazil broke away to form the
Copa União (Union Cup) in response to the
CBF's financial difficulties.
The creation of this competition was designed to promote the state championships in the North, Northeast and Central West regions of Brazil, which were no longer represented in the Brazilian Championship. Copa do Brasil is of high importance for the medium and small clubs in these regions who now, at least theoretically, have a path to qualify for the Copa Libertadores.
The first edition of the Copa do Brasil took place in 1989. The first goal in the cup's history was scored by
Alcindo Sartori
Alcindo Sartori (born 21 October 1967) is a retired Brazilian football player.
He gained experience playing for Flamengo's reserves and made his first team debut in 1986. He played with players like Zico and in 1987 he was a member in the U- ...
in a 2–0 victory by
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 t ...
over
Paysandu.
Gremio were the first champion, qualifying to compete in the 1990 Copa Libertadores.
From 1989 to 1993, the champion of that year took home the trophy. In 1994 it was determined that the club that won the Copa do Brasil three times would have final possession of the cup. This happened in 2001 with
Grêmio (after winning in 1994, 1997 and 2001).
Thus, for the
2002 Copa do Brasil
The Copa do Brasil 2002 was the 14th staging of the Copa do Brasil.
The competition started on February 13, 2002 and concluded on May 15, 2002 with the second leg of the final, held at the Boca do Jacaré in Taguatinga in the Federal District, ...
a new trophy was contested, which remained until 2007 with no club earning its final possession.
By winning the
2003 Copa do Brasil
The Copa do Brasil 2003 was the 15th staging of the Copa do Brasil.
The competition started on 2 February and concluded on 4 June 2003 with the second leg of the final, held at the Mineirão Stadium in Belo Horizonte, in which Cruzeiro lifted ...
and the
2003 Campeonato Brasileiro,
Cruzeiro won both the domestic cup and domestic league in the same year, a feat that was matched only once in Brazilian football by
Atlético Mineiro
Atlético, Spanish for ''athletics'', or Athletico in English, may refer to:
Sports Teams Athletico
*Athletico SC (Lebanon), a Lebanese football academy
*Athletic Bilbao, or Atletico Bilbao, Basque students athletic club (also forming Athletic Cl ...
in 2021. Atlético has also won the 2021
Campeonato Mineiro
Campeonato Mineiro is the state football league of the state of Minas Gerais and is controlled by the Minas Gerais Football Federation FMF (Federação Mineira de Futebol).
The history of Campeonato Mineiro can be divided into two parts: befor ...
, their state championship, as Cruzeiro did in 2003, completing the domestic treble (State league, national league and cup).
In 2008, a new trophy was instituted for the Copa do Brasil. In that same year
Sport Recife
Sport Club do Recife, (; known as Sport Recife or Sport, is a Brazilian sports club, located in the city of Recife, in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco. Founded in 1905, the club currently plays in Série B.
In football, the club has w ...
became the first and so far only club from outside the Southeast Region or the South Region to win the competition. The North Region and Center-West regions have had no representative win the cup so far.
Grêmio's victory over
Atletico Mineiro in the first leg of the
2016 Copa do Brasil
The 2016 Copa do Brasil (officially the Copa Continental Pneus do Brasil 2016 for sponsorship reasons) was the 28th edition of the Copa do Brasil football competition. The competition was contested by 86 teams, which qualified either by their res ...
final was the first time ever that a visiting club won the first leg of the Copa do Brasil final, in the 28 editions of the competition.
The number of participating teams has varied during the competition's history, based on the number of teams that qualify through their state federation's league tournament. From 1989 to 1994, 32 teams participated. That number was increased in 1995 to 36 teams, in 1996 to 40 teams, and in 1997 to 45 teams. 42 teams participated in 1998, 65 in 1999 and 69 in 2000.
From 2001 to 2012, the format was consolidated to 64 teams, without teams that participated in the Copa Libertadores that year due to conflict of dates.
In 2013, CBF presented a new cup trophy to replace the trophy in dispute since 2008. The champion gets permanent possession of the trophy and an identical trophy will be produced for the following year. Also in 2013, the tournament format was expanded again to 87 teams, which remained through 2014 and 2015. Under the new format, teams participating in Copa Libertadores again competed in the Copa do Brasil, entering the tournament directly into the Round of 16. In 2016 the number of participants was increased to 86, in 2017 to 91 and in 2021 to 92.
Records and statistics
Finalists
Performance by State
Top scorers
See also
*
Copa do Brasil de Futebol Feminino
Copa or COPA may refer to:
COPA
COPA may refer to:
* Computer Operator Programming Assistant. trade of ITI
* Child Online Protection Act, a former U.S. law to protect minors from certain material on the internet
* Canadian Owners and Pilots Asso ...
, the women's version of Copa do Brasil.
References
External links
Website official
Other
Copa do BrasilCopa do Brasil
RSSSF.com
{{Authority control
Copa do Brasil
The Copa do Brasil ( en, Brazil Cup) is a knockout football competition played by 92 teams, representing all 26 Brazilian states plus the Federal District. It is the Brazilian domestic cup and the Brazilian equivalent of the FA Cup, Taça de ...
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 ...
Recurring sporting events established in 1989
Professional sports leagues in Brazil
1989 establishments in Brazil