[1] Due to historical peculiarities and the large geographical size of the country, Brazil has a relatively short history of nationwide football competitions.

[3] In 1959, advancements in civil aviation and air transport and the need to appoint a Brazilian representative to the first edition of the Copa Libertadores, led to the creation of a regular nationwide tournament, the Taça Brasil.

The first tournament downright called a national championship was held in 1971, also won by Atlético Mineiro, although it was only referred to as "Campeonato Brasileiro" starting in 1989.

One of the historical characteristics of the Brazilian Championship was the lack of standardization in the competition system, the rules and the number of participants, which changed almost every season.

[12] Due the size of Brazil, economic and geographical challenges, and lack of transport infraestructure, the creation of a fully national league or championship was almost impossible.

[13] The state leagues remained the main and most prestigious championships, and were considered the equivalent of national leagues of other countries.As the sport grew in size, the local state federations and the recently created Confederação Brasileira de Desportos (CBD) started to organize a number of different interstate and regional tournaments.

[15] While the most prestigious club tournament outside the state championships was the Torneio Rio–São Paulo, organized jointly by the Federação Paulista de Futebol (FPF) and Federação Carioca de Futebol (FCF, current FERJ) and competed between clubs from the Campeonato Paulista and Campeonato Carioca.

The first edition was named "Campeonato Nacional de Clubes" ("National Championship of Clubs"), was held in 1971 and won by Atlético Mineiro.

As a result, the thirteen most popular football clubs in Brazil created an association, called Clube dos 13, to organize a championship of their own.

This tournament was called Copa União and was run by the 16 clubs that eventually took part in it (Santa Cruz, Coritiba and Goiás were invited to join).

However, that new set of rules was never recognized by the Club of the 13 and largely ignored by most of the Brazilian media, who concentrated their attention in the independent league, eventually won by Clube de Regatas do Flamengo.

Although Flamengo has attempted to gain ownership of the championship multiple times through the justice system, Sport remains recognized by both CBF and FIFA as 1987 Champions.

To calm the discontent of these clubs and smaller federations, the CBF was forced to create a national "cup" along the lines of the European ones.

[39] Gama, together with the Distrito Federal Football Coaches Union and political party PFL immediately sued the CBF to return to the Série A.

Similarly, Bahia, playing at the 1999 Campeonato Brasileiro Série B failed to promote back to the top division, was included in the Blue Module.

[4] One of the historical characteristics of the Brazilian Championship was the lack of standardization and constant change in the competition system, as well as the rules and the number of participants.

[4][41] In 2002, the Clube dos 13 voted in favor of adopting a European-style round-robin format: The matches are divided into two rounds, and the team that scores the most points is declared champion.

Rede Globo, the Brasileirão's main broadcasting partner was against the removal of playoffs, arguing for a loss of revenue and audience without decisive games.

During the course of a season (from May to December) each club plays the others twice (a double round-robin system), once at their home stadium and once at that of their opponents, for a total of 38 games.

There are 159 teams that have taken part in 1 Copa dos Campeões Estaduais, 10 Taça Brasil, 4 Torneio Roberto Gomes Pedrosa and 54 Campeonato Brasileiro editions.

[61] The All-time Campeonato Brasileiro table is an overall record of all match results, points, and goals of every team that has played in the Brazilian League.

Globo, first cited, displays the League first time in 1987, when was created the Clube dos 13, trading tool of clubs with the television.

[73][74] And only with the conveying of the championship final, SBT broadcast the game instead,[75] a blow to the Rede Globo, who says today that the Green Module would be the league itself, and then was prevented from entering the Ilha do Retiro.

[80] In addition, the first games shown on pay television were courtesy of SporTV, after a controversial signing contract of Clube dos 13 with Globosat.

Vasco da Gama, a finalist against São Caetano, graced the logo of SBT, the second largest television station of Brazil, a direct rival to Globo.

Media organisations were invited to bid for TV packages open, closed, PPV, internet and broadcast abroad.

[94] In 2013, SporTV made a deal with Fox Sports, giving up the rights of Campeonato Brasileiro in exchange for live coverage of the Copa Libertadores.

[96] However, the channel of Turner Group, Esporte Interativo made a deal with Atlético-PR, Bahia, Ceará, Coritiba, Internacional, Joinville, Paysandu, Sampaio Corrêa, Santos, Criciúma, Fortaleza, Paraná, Ponte Preta and Santa Cruz for the broadcasting rights on cable television between 2019 and 2024, opposing Globo's SporTV channel.

[97] In February 2021 the streaming service Paramount+ announced it will broadcast 350 matches[98] Flamengo and Corinthians, the two most supported teams in Brazil, receive approximately 25% (1/4) of all revenue from television.

In comparison to other football league attendance, the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A figure only in fourteenth position, being overcome by the lower divisions in England and Germany.