Brasileirão explained: format, relegation and continental spots

The Campeonato Brasileiro Série A is Brazil's main club competition and runs on the simplest format there is: a straight league. Under the 2026 edition of the CBF's regulations, 20 clubs play each other home and away, and whoever has the most points after the 38th round is champion. No knockout stage, no playoff, no final. The trophy goes to the most consistent side between 28 January and 2 December, the dates set for the first and last rounds of 2026, and that single choice of format explains almost everything that happens in the competition.

How points and rounds work

A win is worth 3 points, a draw 1, a defeat nothing. Each club plays the other nineteen twice, once at home and once away, which makes 38 matches per team and 380 across the season. There is a single table, with no conferences and no groups, and the lead can change hands every round. There is no knockout phase afterwards to correct course.

The tiebreaker that starts with wins

In Brazil, the first criterion for separating clubs level on points is the number of wins, and goal difference only comes after that, under article 15 of the 2026 regulations. A team with more wins finishes ahead even with a worse goal difference: for the tiebreaker, a single extra win outweighs any goal difference. The CBF's regulations do not explain the choice. MLS, which uses the same criterion, explained on its official website why it switched from goals scored to wins in 2013: for the league, the object of the game is to win, and the rule rewards the teams that won more matches.

The criteria are applied in that order, one at a time, until the tie is broken. The head-to-head record counts the points from the two matches between the tied clubs and, if they are still level, the goal difference in those matches; when three or more clubs are tied, the head-to-head record is skipped. In the CBF's official final tables for 2015 and for 2018 to 2025, there were 25 tiebreaks between clubs on the same points: 17 were settled by wins, 7 by goal difference and 1 by goals scored, and no title was decided that way. In the 2020 edition, Fortaleza and Vasco finished with 41 points and 10 wins each, and Vasco went down on goal difference; in 2021, goal difference gave América-MG the last qualifying place for the 2022 Libertadores after they finished level with Atlético-GO on 53 points and 13 wins.

How other leagues break ties

The criterion is rare, but it is not unique to Brazil. Of the 28 competitions whose regulations Soccer Addicted checked in September 2026, only MLS and the Belgian league also start with wins; 16 start with goal difference, 9 with the head-to-head record and 1, the South Korean league, with goals scored. Among Europe's big five leagues, the Premier League, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 start with goal difference, and LaLiga and Italy's Serie A with the head-to-head record.

Who goes up and who goes down

Under the 2026 regulations, the bottom four in Série A are relegated to the 2027 Série B, and the drop is automatic, decided by the table, with no playoff. In the 2026 Série B, the champions and runners-up secure a place in the 2027 Série A, and the other two promotion places are decided by two-legged playoffs, 3rd against 6th and 4th against 5th. All four clubs start the playoffs on zero points, and the second leg is hosted by the 3rd- and 4th-placed sides. In the last round of Série A, the matches that decide the title, relegation or a place in the 2027 Libertadores or Sudamericana kick off at the same time.

The table can also change off the pitch. Under article 214 of the Brazilian Code of Sports Justice, a club that fields or names an ineligible player loses the equivalent of a win, whatever the score, and does not keep the points it earned in that match. The CBF's 2026 Competitions Manual lists the loss of points and relegation among its administrative sanctions, and the CBF's financial sustainability regulations, in force since 1 January 2026, provide for points deductions the following season for clubs that break the financial rules.

The continental places

Série A hands out places in the Copa Libertadores and the Copa Sudamericana, and the allocation changed in the 2026 edition of the regulations. Série A's share of the 2027 Libertadores went from six clubs to five: 1st to 4th go into the group stage and 5th into the qualifying round. The Copa do Brasil's share went up to two: the winners into the group stage and the runners-up into the qualifying round. That is the end of the old G-6, the top six in the table who went to the Libertadores. The 2027 Sudamericana takes the six best-placed Série A clubs without a Libertadores place.

When a club qualifies by two routes, it keeps the better place and the other one moves down the table. If the Copa do Brasil winners already have a group-stage place in the 2027 Libertadores through another route, the cup's direct place passes to the runners-up, and the runners-up's qualifying-round place goes to the best-placed Série A club not yet qualified. A Brazilian club that wins the 2026 Libertadores or Sudamericana takes the place CONMEBOL reserves for the champions, and the place it would have had through Série A or the Copa do Brasil also moves down. The regulations set no limit on how far a place can move down: in 2021, when Série A still sent six clubs, reallocations took Libertadores qualification down to 8th place. Only clubs in the 2027 Série A can play in the 2027 Libertadores.

Squads, foreign players and switching clubs

Under the 2026 edition of the regulations, each club can register up to 50 players until 7 October and replace up to 8 of them until 30 October. Once the competition has started, a player can only move to another Série A club if he has played no more than 12 matches for the club he is leaving, and he can only represent two clubs in the competition. In 2025 the limit was 6 matches, and the CBF put the increase down to the 2026 calendar, which was paused for the World Cup. Each club can register up to five players who have already played for other clubs in the 2026 Série A, no more than three from the same club. And under the CBF's 2026 Competitions Manual, each club can name up to nine foreign players per match; a player registered as a refugee counts as Brazilian.

Why the calendar looks strange

Brazilian football runs within the calendar year, not from August to May like the European season. For 2026, the CBF cut the state championships to a maximum of 11 match dates and scheduled Série A to start on 28 January, in parallel with them. Série A paused after the 18th round for the World Cup and has its last round scheduled for 2 December, four days before the single-match Copa do Brasil final. That is why a Brazilian club can play in four competitions in the same season: its state championship, Série A, the Copa do Brasil and the Libertadores or the Sudamericana.

With no knockout stage, a team that fades in the final stretch has no second chance to rescue its season: the title and relegation are decided by the table. The rules in this guide are those of the 2026 edition. In July 2026, the CBF began working with the clubs on new regulations for Série A and Série B, announced for the 2027 season.