Brazil. Taca Roberto Gomes de Pedrosa

 

Brazil. Taça Roberto Gomes de Pedrosa. This tournament was a precursor of the national championship.  In December 2010, CBF decided to recognise the 4 editions of the Taça Roberta Gomes de Pedrosa and the 10 editions of the Taça do Brasil as official national championships.

In August 2023 (!) the CBF recognised the 1937 State Champions' Cup (Copa dos Campeões Estaduais) as the first Brazilian Championship. Since in real time the competitions were not offical Brazilian championships, they will stay unofficial here. It is also questionable how important these tournamnents really were: they hardly got coverage in Europe and in Brazil it seems their prime importance was qualifiaction to Copa Libertadores of the top two teams. Still state championships of Rio and Sao Paulo hold greater status along with Rio-Sao Paulo competion (which by 1970 included some clubs from other states as well). As for the tournament, 17 teams played in it, divided into 2 groups and the to two teams from each group went mini-final tournament.

Group A
 1-Palmeiras      16  9  5  2  17- 8  23  Qualified
 2-Atlético-MG    16  7  6  3  21-13  20  Qualified

Top, left to right: Moreira, Cao, Leonidas, Humberto, Ney, Waltencyr.

Bottom, left to right: Rogeiro, Paolo Roberto, Roberto, Ferretti, Paulo Cesar.

 3-Botafogo       16  7  5  4  21-13  19
 4-Grêmio         16  6  6  4  16-13  18
 5-Santos         16  5  6  5  20-20  16
 6-Bahia          16  5  5  6  11-18  15
 7-São Paulo      16  3  5  8  14-20  11
Standing form left: Jonas. Alex. Djair. Maneco. Renato, Ze Carlos.
Crouhing: Tarciso. Badeco. Jeremias. Edu, Reis.
 8-América        16  2  6  8  15-23  10

Group B
 1-Cruzeiro       16  9  3  4  29-14  21  Qualified
 2-Fluminense     16  8  4  4  26-15  20  Qualified
 3-Internacional  16  8  4  4  21-12  20
 4-Flamengo       16  7  6  3  18- 9  20
 5-Corinthians    16  5  6  5  17-16  16
 6-Santa Cruz     16  3  8  5  14-22  14
 7-Atlético-PR    16  4  4  8  13-22  12
 8-Ponte Preta    16  3  4  9  11-34  10
 9-Vasco da Gama  16  2  3 11  14-26   7

Final Phase
 1-Fluminense      3  2  1  0   3- 1   5  Champions
 2-Palmeiras       3  2  0  1   7- 3   4

Standing from left: Careca, Humberto Monteiro, Vanderlei Paiva,  Grapete, Vantuir, Cincunegui. 

Crouching: Agachados Vaguinho, Oldair, Dario, Lacy, Tião
 3-Atlético-MG     3  0  2  1   2- 5   2

Standing from left: Vanderlei, Fontana, Pedro Paulo, Piazza, Ditão, Raul
Crouching: Nocaute Jack, Natal, Zé Carlos, Tostão, Dirceu Lopes, Rodrigues 
 4-Cruzeiro        3  0  1  2   3- 6   1

Fluminense (Rio de Janeiro) – official or unofficial, depending on point of view and time position. Take it as you like, but the guys won.