The 1987 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A was the 31st edition of the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, better known as Campeonato Brasileiro.
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.
Background The origins of the championship date back to September 1986, when Vasco director Eurico Miranda suggested that the championship downsized between 16 and 20 clubs. The 1986 Campeonato Brasileiro was also unusual. The championship had 80 clubs, divided in four groups of eleven clubs (A, B, C, and D) and four groups of 9 clubs (E, F, G, and H). The six first-placed teams in the A, B, C and D groups were joined by the best four non-qualified teams, regardless of group, in those same groups, and the champions of groups E, F, G, and H in the second phase. In that year, it was also determined that the 1987 Campeonato Brasileiro would have 24 clubs, those being the six best teams in each of the four groups in the second phase. However, Vasco da Gama, after being eliminated in the first phase, attempted to get Joinville's berth in the second phase, since Joinville had won the points of a draw against Sergipe due to one player of Sergipe having been caught in an anti-doping test. If that extra point was taken from Joinville, Joinville would fall to 8th place in the group, and Vasco would qualify due to having a better goal difference. As an attempted solution, CBF gave berths in the second phase to both Vasco and Joinville, eliminating Portuguesa, that had appealed to the common courts in an unrelated case about ticket sales. After being threatened with the withdrawal of the clubs from São Paulo, CBF reversed its decision and enlarged the second stage to 36 clubs, qualifying Vasco da Gama, Náutico, Santa Cruz and Sobradinho. Because of that, the 1987 championship was enlarged to 28 clubs.
As of March 1987, the teams in the First Division would be the seven best-placed teams in each group in the Second stage of the 1986 championship: America-RJ, Atlético-GO, Atlético Mineiro, Atlético-PR, Bahia, Bangu, Ceará, Corinthians, Criciúma, CSA, Flamengo, Fluminense, Goiás, Grêmio, Guarani, Inter de Limeira, Internacional, Joinville, Náutico, Palmeiras, Portuguesa, Rio Branco, São Paulo, Santa Cruz, Santos, Treze Futebol Clube and Vasco da Gama. The other eight eliminated teams (Botafogo, Central, Comercial-MS, Nacional-AM, Ponte Preta, Sobradinho, Sport Recife and Vitória) plus Coritiba, Operário-MS and Remo, would join the other 21 best-placed teams in the 1987 State championships in the 1987 Second Division. Around the same time, Botafogo was still attempting to place itself in the First Level, taking Joinville's place.
In June 1987, STJD accepted Botafogo's request to be included in the 1987 championship, however, not confirming Joinville's relegation. Soon after this decision, other clubs such as Coritiba and Sobradinho requested their inclusion in the championship, with Coritiba's request being accepted as well.
In July, Octávio Pinto Guimarães, President of CBF, declared that the entity couldn't pay for the expenses of the clubs unless it found a sponsor, and thus, the clubs would have to pay for their expenses themselves. Otherwise, CBF would have to organize a regional championship to reduce the costs of the trips, to avoid not organizing the championship, since this would be an admission of incompetence.
On 11 July 1987, at Morumbi, the Clube dos 13 (Club of the Thirteen in Portuguese) was founded. The founding members were Corinthians, Palmeiras, São Paulo, Santos, Flamengo, Vasco da Gama, Fluminense, Botafogo, Atlético Mineiro, Cruzeiro, Internacional, Grêmio and Bahia, which according to a survey accounted for 95% of all fans of Brazilian football, and according to CBF ranking, were also the 13 clubs with the best records since 1971. The host of the event, Carlos Miguel Aidar, was also elected president of the new entity, remaining in office until April 1990. The objective of the Clube dos 13 was to organize the championship only between themselves. Thus, the Clube dos 13 organized the Copa União, which would represent the Brazilian Championship that year. The creation of the Copa União came after a reconciliation between the CBF and the Clube dos 13, since a break with the entity could trigger reactions in FIFA. In order to round out the number of participants, the Clube dos 13 invited Coritiba, Santa Cruz and Goiás, that had the best records in the Brazilian Championship and were the most popular teams in their respective states.
Aidar's proposal was that the championship would be played by Clube dos 13 clubs only. The remaining 19 clubs would play in a separate championship, from which three would leave to join Clube dos 13, forming Division A with 16 clubs. The other 16 clubs would form Division B.
On 15 July 1987 CBF vice president Nabi Chedid said that the CBF would organize the championship and that Clube dos 13 could be disqualified if they chose to make Copa Uniao and not play the CBF Brazilian championship. He also said that all 26 federations had to take part. That day, CBF presented their first proposal for the competition: 20 clubs in the first division, followed by twelve clubs from Clube dos Treze (except Bahia), and eight more that would come from a qualifier of 48 clubs.
To honor their policy commitments with other national federations in 1987, CBF would organize two championships that were nominated as modules: "Yellow" - considered by several media outlets the Second Division - which would consist of 14 teams that were left out of the Clube dos 13 tournament, along with Vitória and Sport, demoted in 1986. The modules "Blue" and "White" - considered by several media outlets to Third Division - which represent the Second Division. The modules "Blue" and "White" would serve as qualifiers to the Second Division in 1988.
To reconcile the interests of CBF with the Clube dos 13, Copa Uniao would be called "Green Module" and, in principle, these clubs called "Yellow Module" that fought a championship would be parallel to the Copa Uniao for the Club 13 (and for much of the sporting press, only the second division of Brasileirão that year), but in the end there should be a crossover between the champions and runners-up in both tournaments to decide who would be the two representatives of Brazil that would dispute the Copa Libertadores the following year. However, the formula of contention was not accepted by the clubs in Module Yellow, who wanted the Brazilian champion to also be defined in such a crossover. The president of the Football Federation of Pernambuco, Fred Oliveira, even declared that the teams in module yellow "will not take the field until CBF set the crossover module still in 1987". A preliminary version of the regulation was defined unilaterally on 9 September in a meeting with Club 13 at the Hotel Transamérica, in São Paulo. This regulation provided the only crossing between modules to define the Brazilian representatives in the 1988 Libertadores.
Although it seemed absurd, there was no reluctance about this proposal and everything was defined. But in late September, CBF began to consider also the "Module Yellow" as first division along with Copa União (called by CBF the "Green Module"). The change of regulation proposed by the CBF would be that this crossover between the champions and runners-up of these two divisions would also decide who was the Brazilian champion of 1987. However, there was no agreement and this led to a major controversy. There is also a regulation of Clube dos 13, not stamped by CBF, dated August 6 and another with the final regulation, officiated by CBF and disclosed only on the 1st of October (with the championship already underway) without the approval of the Clube dos 13 and clubs in Module Green, also stating that the champion would be decided in the cuadrangular, to be held in January 1988. This decision went against resolução 16/86 which required that the league championships began and ended the same year. It also said that there are exceptions only when notified by the federations, which would not have made the CBF to extend the 1987 Brazilian championship until January 1988.
Eurico Miranda, vice president of CR Vasco (at the time) would have given reason for confusion on behalf of the association by signing a document which provided the crossing when it was proposed by the CBF as an interlocutor in the 13 Club entity, however, the Clube dos 13 only heard the news via press release the following day. Still, there had never been an understanding between the two parties: the Club 13 and the other representatives of the clubs in contention for Copa Union never recognized or signed any document accepting the amendment of the regulation that was proposed by the confederation which required the participants crossing between the two modules. As well as the clubs Module Yellow, who even before the start of competition, always explicitly stood against no crossing of groups and later also demanded that the champion (and not just the Brazilian representatives in the 1988 Libertadores) was set in the cuandrangular. According to Eurico Miranda, a representative of the Clube dos 13 at the time, it has signed an agreement for the competition, and what was signed was in conjunction with the members of the Club of 13, according to what the CBF regulations were.
Ironically the regulation imposed by the CBF which provided a cross between the champions and vice champions of each module, however, would become unviable in the long run, because in the Yellow module it was not defined who was the vice champion. Finalists Sport and Guarani, after extra time in the shootout tied at 11-11, decided to share the title in an agreement between themselves. Not contrary to the rules or risk of punishment by the CBF, Guarani was willing to abdicate Yellow title module. According to a lower court decision in the 10th Federal Court of the Judicial Section of Pernambuco, CBF, possession of regulation and tiebreakers, said Sport were champion based on their better campaign. It was reported that on January 22, 1988, Guarani officially relinquished the title. The Union Cup of 87 organized by the Clube dos 13 had average paying audience of 20,877, the second largest in history of the national championship.