FORMAT OF COMPETITION

The Campeonato Paulista 2004 will consist of 4 phases, the teams will play a minimum of 9 matches and a maximum of 15. The Chapionship cosists of 21 teams split up into two groups, group 1 has 10 teams and group 2 has 11 teams. The Campeonatos Paulistá biggest Champion ever is CORINTHIANS which has conquered the State a total of 25 times.
The division of the groups was decided based on a raffle. Following are the groups, clubs and city where the clubs are rom:

FIRST PHASE
In the first phase of competition the clubs will play against the other clubs once in the respective groups. The four clubs with the most points will make into the next phase.

SECOND PHASE
The second phase will consist of 8 clubs, these clubs will be divided into 4 groups of 2. The 2 clubs in each group will play only one match, the clubs that win that one match will make into the next phase.

GROUP 3
1º of group ONE
4º of group TWO

GROUP 4
1º of group TWO
4º of group ONE

GROUP 5
2º of group ONE
3º of group TWO

GROUP 6
2º of group TWO
3º of group ONE

THIRD PHASE
In this phase the 4 clubs that won in the last phase will be divided into 2 groups of 2. These clubs will face the other club in their group in the leg matches. The clubs to get the most points out of these two matches will make it to the final.

GROUP 7
1.º of group 3
1° of group 4

GROUP 8
1ª of group 5
1º of group 6

FOURTH PHASE
The fourth and final phase will have the two finalists playing two matches against each other, and the champion will be the team will the most amount of points during this final phase.

SCHEDULE & CLUBS

• Full Campeonato Paulista Schedule (TV also)
• Clubs

HISTORY OF CAMPEONATO PAULISTA

The Campeonato Paulista is the biggest State Championship in Brasil, and it features some of Brasil´s best teams. To better understand the importance of the Campeonato Paulista you need to consider a few facts:

Before the Brazilian national Championship was created in 1971, the State tournaments were the biggest thing on the domestic calendar. Brasil’s huge geographical area made it difficult to run a truly national league. Just to give you an idea of the size of Brasil, the state of São Paulo alone is around 250,000 km2 (248,808.8), which is actually larger than the entire land mass of the UK.

SP is not only South America’s richest state but with a population of around 17 million, sp is the continent’s largest city. Double that figure and you have the population of SP state (35,816,740 ).

SP celebrates its 450th birthday on January 25th this year. From humble beginnings as a small trading center, the coffee plantations that sprung up in the mid 19th and early 20th centuries helped transform SP into the third biggest city in the world.

Millions of migrants were drawn to Brasil looking for work and half of them ended up in the state of SP. People arrived from over 50 countries and SP now boasts the largest Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish populations, and the third biggest number of Italians and Lebanese, outside their own countries.

Nowadays, Paulistanos and Paulistas make up more than 22% of the population of Brazil and between them generate around 35% of the nation’s GDP, and just 70 km away from the capital is Santos, the largest port in Latin America.

Created on Decemeber 14 1901, by the Liga Paulista de Footbal founded by PPAC, Internacional, Mackenzie College, Germânia e Paulistano. The club competitions in São Paulo came under the control of a number of organizations until the Federação Paulista de Futebol (FPF), was formed on 22 April 1941, by Palestra Itália (Palmeiras), Corinthians, São Paulo, Santos, Portuguesa, Juventus, Espanha (Jabaquara), Comercial/SP, Portuguesa Santista, Ypiranga & SPR (Nacional).

Pelé, who else, was the top scorer in the competition for nine years running but the likes of Sócrates, Rivelino, Careca, Raí, Roberto Carlos, Edmundo, Leonardo, Rivaldo and more recently Kaká, have graced the tournament with their array of skills.

On show this year, we can look forward to seeing the likes of Brasil internationals Diego, Robinho, Luis Fabiano, and 2004 also sees the return of old boy Freddy Rincon as the former Colombian international returns to Corinthians.