1987 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A
The 1987 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A was the 31st edition of the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, better known as Campeonato Brasileiro.
| Season | 1987 |
|---|---|
| Dates | 11 September 1987 – 7 February 1988 |
| Champions | Sport |
| 1988 Copa Libertadores | Sport Guarani |
| Matches played | 239 |
| Goals scored | 433 (1.81 per match) |
| Top goalscorer | 10 goals Müller (São Paulo) |
← 1986 1988 → | |
In 1987, the CBF was going through a serious financial crisis, and on 7 July 7, the CBF announced that it was unable to organize a national championship. The CBF attempted to find a sponsor to fund the competition, but was unsuccessful, so they were forced to hold a regional event. As a result, the thirteen main clubs in Brazil, (Clube dos 13) decided to create a new championship, with the name of Copa União, by which it was known, but had the official name of Copa Brasil.
The competition was divided by CBF in modules: the Green Module won by Flamengo and with Internacional runner-up; the Yellow Module, of which the champion was Sport and vice-champion Guarani. Champions and runners up of those two modules were to form the final quadrangular. The Blue and White modules formed the equivalent of the Série B.
Flamengo and Internacional, champions and runners-up of the Green Module, abdicated to participate from the final quadrangular as part of an agreement made by all clubs of the Green Module, forfeiting their berths in the final phase and having their scheduled matches ruled as W.O., which caused controversy and resulted in a topic of debate for many years as to who was the official champion of the 1987 season, since the winner of the quadrangular would have been the champion that season. In March 2018, Sport was officially declared as Brazilian champion of 1987, despite many appeals from Flamengo.