The Série A (informally called Brasileirão) is the main division of Brazilian football. It is presently composed of 20 teams; currently, the bottom four teams in Série A are relegated and the top four teams in Série B are promoted.
Due it continental size and historical peculiarities, Brazil has a recent history of national competitions, with the modern Campeonato Brasileiro having started in 1971 supported by the then military regime and just became possible due the changes and evolution in in Civil aviation & Air transport. Controversies apart, the CBF until today don’t officially recognize the preceding national tournaments from 1959 to 1970 Taça Brasil and Torneio Roberto Gomes Pedrosa to count as national title, although these 2 championships had teams from all regions from Brazil.
The most successful team in this league is Flamengo, who have won 5 titles since it inception in 1971.
The only club to win a championship undefeated was Internacional, in 1979, with 15 wins and 7 draws. Also, in a match between Goiás and Cruzeiro, in the same year, 14 players were sent off.
Roberto Dinamite is the player with most goals scored in Campeonato Brasileiro history. Dinamite scored 190 in 20 seasons (1971-1989).
As of 2007, only Cruzeiro, Flamengo, Internacional and Vasco participated in all editions of the Série A.
Since 2003, the Série A has been contested in a double round-robin format. In other words, each team plays against each other home and away, and the team with most points is declared champion. There is no final match, which is a very controversial subject. Prior to 2003, the Brazilian championship has traditionally been decided with some type of playoff format (most commonly the "Octagonal", where the top 8 regular season teams comprise a single elimination tournament), rather than the European model of points accumulated over a season. Although some purists complain that this system lacks the drama of playoffs and finals, the championship has so far shown to be well balanced, without the limited number of clubs dominating the league as found in many European leagues.
The seasons with more entrants were: 2000 (116 entrants), 1979 (94 entrants) and 1986 (80 entrants).
All the big clubs from São Paulo, except Palmeiras, withdrew from the 1979 championship. They protested against the odd system of tier qualification which made rivals Palmeiras and Guarani, previous-year finalists, enter only in final phase, and asked for the same privileges. Indeed oddly enough, Guarani finished in the top 12 playing only 3 games, probably a world record especially in a championship with 96 entrants. Palmeiras itself finished third despite playing only 5 games.
In 1984, Juventus, a small club from São Paulo, managed to qualify for the Série A. That year participants could be promoted and relegated from and to Série B in the middle of the tournament. Juventus started thus the tournament in the premiership, was relegated in the middle of the tournament but eventually managed to clinch the Série B title. Despite this the team was not promoted the year after to Série A and failed to qualify to it from the state championship.
In 1999, an averaging relegation system similar to the one used in the Primera División Argentina was adopted. The two clubs with the worst point results in the first stage of the two previous seasons were to be relegated. However, this system only lasted for a single season.
In 2005, each team played 42 games, 21 home and 21 away, for a total of 462 games. The champion and runner-up automatically qualified for the 2006 Copa Libertadores. The third and fourth placed teams may also represent Brazil in the Libertadores by defeating foreign clubs to be determined by CONMEBOL in pre-tournament trials. The champion and 5th through 11th placed teams also win the right to represent Brazil in the Copa Sudamericana, another South American championship of lower stature. The four last ranked teams (19th, 20th, 21st and 22nd) were relegated to the following year's Série B.
Eleven matches of the 2005 competition were annulled due to a match-fixing scandal and had to be replayed.
For the 2006 season, the number of contestants was reduced to 20, and CBF claims it to be the "definitive" format. In 2006, the limit on the number of foreign players was that no team can have more than 3 foreign players on the field or on the bench in a single match.
2008's format is identical to the 2007 edition. 20 teams will compete, each team playing the other 19 twice in a double round-robin format (one home game, one away). At the season finale, the team with the most accumulated points (3 for each win, 1 for a draw, none for a loss) will be declared champion.
Pending official designation by the various governing bodies, classification within the championship will earn the respective clubs seeds in various other tournaments. The top four clubs will receive entry into the 2009 edition of the Copa Libertadores, and the teams that classify from 5th to 12th, will receive entry into the 2009 edition of the Copa Sudamericana. If any Brazilian team qualifies for the Libertadores Cup by other means (either by conquering the Copa Libertadores 2008 or the Copa do Brasil 2008) and also finishes on a top four position, all qualification positions below and including its own will be shifted down. The top 16 teams will earn the right to compete in the 2009 Série A, with the bottom four clubs being relegated to Série B (to be replaced by the top four clubs of the 2008 Série B championship).
- Atlético Mineiro.
- Atlético Paranaense.
- Botafogo.
- Coritiba.
- Cruzeiro.
- Figueirense.
- Flamengo.
- Fluminense.
- Goiás.
- Grêmio.
- Internacional.
- Ipatinga.
- Náutico.
- Palmeiras.
- Portuguesa.
- Santos.
- São Paulo.
- Sport Recife.
- Vasco.
- Vitória.
The current champions and favourites for this year's title are São Paulo.
Map of states participating in 2008's championship. 
I would play a wide 4-4-2 in this league as a lot of Brazilian teams will not deploy any wingers. Make your pitch as wide as possible. Trust me, it seems that most of these teams don't believe in wingers. Everything's narrow. If you can find any decent crossers then get them. As for transfers, I've noticed it's very hard to persuade people to come to Brazil from outside of South America, but there are a lot of South American players out there good enough for the top flight.
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