Logistics and Other Stuff regarding Brazil Serie A
Below, you will find the teams in the Brazilian Serie A this year, the 4 teams in
red were promoted from Serie B.
Atlético Mineiro MG
Atlético Paranaense PR
Botafogo RJ
Coritiba PR (promoted from Serie B)
Cruzeiro MG
Figueirense SC
Flamengo RJ
Fluminense RJ
Goiás GO
Grêmio RS
Internacional RS
Ipatinga MG (promoted from Serie B)
Náutico PE
Palmeiras SP
Portuguesa SP (promoted from Serie B)
Santos SP
São Paulo SP
Sport PE
Vasco RJ
Vitória BA (promoted from Serie B)
You will notice a series of 2 letters after the football team name, this indicates the State the team is from, there is a key below:
State Key:
RJ = Rio de Janeiro
MG = Minas Gerais
PR = Parana
SC = Santa Catarina
GO = Goais
SP = Sao Paulo
RS = Rio Grande do Sul
PE = Pernambuco
BA = Bahia
You will notice from the above , that there are only 9 states represented in Serie A - actually a third of the countries states - of course , all 27 states are madly and passionately in love with football, but they are just not currently good enough for Serie A.
Naturally, with promotion and demotion at seasons end, this can change , year-on-year.
Here follows a map of Brazil, with all states marked clearly, along with their capitals.
If you intend following and making bets on Serie A this season, it will pay you to familiarize yourself with the geography - in addition to noting the Rio and Sao Paulo teams.
Both principalities account for 8 of the 20 teams:
Rio teams are;
Flamengo,
Fluminense, Botafogo and Vasco.
Sao Paulo teams are;
Sao Paulo, Santos, Palmeiras and Portuguesa.
Recife, Pernambuco, in the north-east has 2 teams,
Nautico and Sport. Also from the north-east ,
Bahia has 1 team;
Vitoria.
Minas Gerais which borders Sao Paulo and Rio has 3 teams;
Atlético Mineiro, Ipatinga and Cruzeiro. Whilst the southern state bordering Argentina,
Rio Grande do Sul, also has 2 teams in the shape of;
Gremio and Internacional. Whilst
Parana, also has 2 teams
, Atlético Paranaense and Coritiba. Santa Catarina and
Goias each have one representative,
Figueirense and Goiás, respectively.
If you have already studied the map and team location you would have noticed that most of the teams in Serie A are from the southern part of Brazil, the teams furthest north this season are Nautico and Sport in Recife, Pernambuco.
There are states in Brazil which are bigger than some European countries, and you should always check-out and know the teams you are betting on - and as in all regions of the world, football rivalry is no different in Brazil.
It's worth noting that there are two layers and primary aspects of rivalry in Brazilian football.
The first is the obvious rivalry between teams from the same state and city, but just as intense , is inter-state rivalry. The latter is important, and there have in the past, been accusations
(particularly at seasons end)
that relegation battles have been won and lost through same state teams putting out second-string players or such like - although , of course this is only rhetoric
and unproven.
Hope you have found this useful so far, there will be more info and bits and bobs about Brazil Serie A, soon...