Copa dos Campeões Estaduais


The Copa dos Campeões Estaduais, the "Cup of State Champions," was a competition for Brazilian association football clubs held in the years 1920 and 1936. In the absence of other notable national competitions, the winners considered themselves champions of Brazil. Participants were the champions of the states considered the then leading forces in Brazilian football.
Winners of the competitions were:
The Taça dos Campeões Estaduais of 1914 and the Taça Ioduran, held 1917 and 1919 between the State Champions of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, are considered the precursors to this competition. When the Copa dos Campeões Estaduais was held first in 1920 the State Champion of Minas Gerais has been added as third participant. In the 1936 there were additional participants from the states Rio de Janeiro and Espirito Santo as well as the navy.
From 1933 forward the Torneio Rio-São Paulo established itself more and more as the leading interstate competition of Brazil, which was by 1950 given the name Torneio Roberto Gomes Pedrosa and mutated in the course of the 1970s into today's national Brazilian Championship.

Copa dos Campeões Estaduais 1920

The tournament of 1920 was held in March in Rio de Janeiro in the format of a league. All matches took place in the Estádio das Laranjeiras of Fluminense FC. It was the first competition organised by the Confederação Brasileira de Deportes, the precursor of today's CBF. Participants were the following winners of their state championships of 1919:
Paulistano had to play without their star Rubens Salles who had to stay back in São Paulo due to undeferrable commitments. Grêmio Brasil featured Ismael Alvariza, who became in December 1920 the first player from a club outside Rio and São Paulo to play in the national team.

The matches

;Paulistano 7 × 3 Brasil de Pelotas
25 March 1920
;Fluminense 1 × 4 Paulistano
28 March 1920
;Fluminense 6 × 2 Brasil de Pelotas
3 April 1920
Final table:

Copa dos Campeões Estaduais 1936 ([Champions Cup 1937 (FBF)])

The 1936 tournament was organised by the Federação Brasileira de Futebol Januar 1937 and held in a league format with home and away legs. Participants were the five state champions of 1936 and a delegation of the sports club of the navy, which qualified through an internal process. Participating teams were:
Atlético Mineiro, Fluminense and Portuguesa were automatically qualified. The other participants played for one more place:
Qualification
The Matches
Final table
Winner was Atlético Mineiro with the following team: Kafunga, Clóvis - Florindo, Quim - Zezé Procópio, Lola, Bala, Alcindo - Paulista, Abraz, Alfredo Bernardino, Bazzoni, Guará, Nicola, Resende, Elair - Coach: Floriano Peixoto. Atlético usually played in a 2-3-5 formation.