State football leagues in Brazil

Common card · No. 480353

The Brazilian states football championships (Portuguese: Campeonatos Estaduais or simply Estaduais) are the professional adult male football 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 Region, however, it takes place in May or June. One such league, the Campeonato Paulista, which started in 1902, is the oldest football competition in Brazil. All professional football clubs in Brazil play in a state championship, but not all qualify for the national league. The state championships were the first professional competitions formed in Brazil; due to economic and geographic reasons, and especially long distances between the country's main cities and different states, each of the federative units of Brazil created their own football championship. As such, state leagues were the main competition and even after the creation of a proper national championship in 1971 the state leagues...

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