The CBF attempted to find a sponsor to fund the competition, but was unsuccessful, so they were forced to hold a regional event.
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.
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.
[4] 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 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Finalists Sport and Guarani, after extra time in the shootout tied at 11-11, decided to share the title in an agreement between themselves.
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.
In December 1987, the CBF announced this cuandrangular, that would be played in round robin format, and on January 14, 1988, the 10th Federal Court Section Judicial Pernambuco upheld a lawsuit injunction filed by Sport to ensure the implementation of resolution 16/86 of the CND, which provided, in its Article 5, that any decision making in the Council of Arbitration, convened by Flamengo, would only be valid in case of unanimity.
At the council, Sport, Guarani, Nautico, Criciuma, Joinville, CSA and Treze voted for maintaining the crossing.
Claiming that the regulation was amended in the absence of Clube dos 13, Flamengo and International-RS with support of the 13 Club and Carlos Miguel Aidar, refused to dispute the crossing imposed by CBF.
It was not a simple choice of Flamengo and Internacional, but the fulfillment of a determination of the 13 Club and the Union Cup regulation, which was created by the same entity.
Under the protests of Flamengo fans, camped in front of the building of the CBF, it has received a vote of confidence of all present "because it demands respect for the Regulation of the Brazilian Championship ".
On 21 February 2011, CBF decided to resolve the controversy by declaring Flamengo and Sport as champions of 1987 and Guarani and Internacional as their runner ups, respectively.
CBF admitted that the goal was not to do "cold justice" to the historical facts "no matter who it hurt", but to pacify the controversy so nobody would be upset.
Prior to that CBF had found problems with money, suggesting the clubs finance themselves or accomplish a lean championship, with regionalized, few trips.
Also called Taça Roberto Gomes Pedrosa, it counted with the participation of the best-placed teams of the 1986 Championship that hadn't been invited into the Copa União, except for Ponte Preta.