The Campeonato Brasileiro Série C is the third tier of the

Brazilian football league system The Brazilian football league system is a series of interconnected leagues for football clubs in Brazil. It consists of several independent pyramids, which are the national pyramid and the states pyramids. As these pyramids are independent, clu ...

. 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 financial conditions to travel long distances. Thus, the tournament is organized in regional groups and the table prevents teams from distant states from playing each other in the initial rounds. Until 2008, any professional team could apply, but only 64 teams would take part in the tournament. The teams that had been

relegated In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

from the Série B in the previous year were joined by teams qualified for each federation state. Qualification rules varied, some federations used the state tournaments as qualification tournaments, others organized exclusive qualification tournaments to the Série C. Beginning in 2009, the Série C was reduced from 64 teams to 20 and the new

Campeonato Brasileiro Série D The Campeonato Brasileiro Série D (English: Brazilian Championship Serie D) is the fourth division of the Brazilian football league system, and was announced by the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) on April 9, 2008. The Campeonato Brasileir ...

is the qualifier for Brazilian league football. In its current format the 20 teams are divided into two groups and each team plays all opponents from its own group on a home and away basis. The top four teams in each group qualify for a knock out stage and the four semi-finalists are promoted to the Campeonato Brasileiro Série B. The bottom two teams of each group are relegated to the

History and past champions

Official champions

The Campeonato Brasileiro has existed since 1971. However, there have been many years when no third division tournament took place. In most cases it was because the two elite divisions had too many clubs (in 1989, for instance, 96 teams contested the second division"Brazil 2nd Level 1989 Divisão Especial"
Rssf.). The following table shows the winners and runners-up of the Série C tournaments played from 1981, according to the Brazilian Football Confederation:

¹ Associação Atlética Santo Amaro is named presently named Manchete.

² Etti Jundiaí was later renamed Paulista.

³ Ituiutaba was later renamed Boa Esporte Clube.

Unofficial champions

The following season is not officially recognized by the CBF:

Titles by team

Titles by state

Participations

Most appearances

Below is the list of clubs that have more appearances in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série C.

References

External links

CBF
Confederação Brasileira de Futebol - Brazilian Football Confederation

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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 ...

Professional sports leagues in Brazil