Hello there, been reading up on your state of football down there. Seems very interesting about the structure (both good and bad characteristics). Also seems that there is a good variety of strong teams as opposed to something like La Liga or SPL. One question I had though was on the previous playoff structure. I found it interesting because apparently such structure is poo pooed in Europe yet they have it in Mexico (and a few other countries). Any particular reason they abandoned the structure? Have people gotten used to the new one?
The point system is the only true measurement of a champion. We have the point system in our national championship, but in the state championships, we still use the play off structure.
Some people still believe that the new structure is more fair than the previous one with playoffs, because the most regular team is the champion. I dont agree, i think this structure very boring and i think most brazilians rather the previous one divided in 2 stages. Only in playoffs matches the real players can show theirs skills, soccer players must know how to play under pressure against rival fans. My team was national champion in 2009 under this new structure and i was at Maracanã at the last round when Flamengo was champion against a disinterested Gremio, that were already on "vacations", i can tell you even NT championship being much more important than States Championships i felt much more happy and celebrated much more when Flamengo wons others less important tournment in real Final matches. Soccer is not a fair sport, not always the best team win, luck is always present factor, so trying to make soccer a always "fair" sport is very boring for me, the unpredictability is what makes soccer the most popular sport in the world.
@DanFla: not only an disinterested Grêmio, already on vacations, but also a team NOT INTERESTED in win, because winning against Flamengo would give the title to Grêmio´s biggest archrival, Internacional. So we sent the reserve team