Copa do Brasil 2026 (M)

On 2 September 1989, at the Olímpico Monumental in Porto Alegre, Grêmio beat Sport Recife 2-1 and lifted a trophy invented to settle an argument. Two years earlier thirteen big clubs had broken away to stage the Copa União and the Brazilian league had shrunk overnight; the state federations with no clubs in the elite demanded a national tournament their sides could actually enter. The CBF gave them a straight knockout, open to every state, with a Copa Libertadores ticket waiting at the end.

It got away from them almost immediately, and that is the point of it. In 1991 Criciúma, from a mining town in Santa Catarina, put Grêmio out in the final. In 2005 Paulista de Jundiaí won it without even playing in the national first division. In 2008 Sport Recife became the only champion from outside the Southeast or the South, and nobody has matched that in 37 editions. The best-attended match in the competition's history was not the obvious one either: 101,581 people filled the Maracanã for the 1999 final.

At the top, though, the usual names rule. Cruzeiro hold 6 titles — 1993, 1996, 2000, 2003, 2017 and 2018 — and are the only club past five. Grêmio and Flamengo have 5 apiece; Palmeiras and Corinthians 4; Atlético Mineiro 2. Six clubs between them own 26 of the 37 cups handed out.

Maracanã, 21 December 2025. Corinthians beat Vasco da Gama 2-1 and take the cup 2-1 on aggregate, four days after a goalless first leg with barely a chance in it at the Neo Química Arena. It is the São Paulo club's fourth title — 1995, 2002, 2009 and this one — and it came with a cheque for R$77,175,000.

A goalkeeper carried the whole thing. Hugo Souza was named both player and goalkeeper of the tournament, and the two semi-finals show why that was no sentimental pick: Corinthians knocked out Cruzeiro 5-4 on penalties after a 2-2 aggregate, and Vasco did the same to Fluminense, 4-3 from the spot after another 2-2. Kaio Jorge and Rayan finished as joint top scorers with 5 goals each.

The shock had come earlier, in the last 16, and it was a heavy one: Flamengo, holders and one of only two clubs on 5 cups, went out to Atlético Mineiro. It was the 37th edition and the last under the old shape: 92 clubs, 122 matches and 279 goals, an average of 2.29 a game.

Corinthians defend the cup and have drawn an away start, against an Internacional side that won it in 1992 and has never lifted it again. Cruzeiro, with more titles than anyone, are the only one of the sixteen to have won it back to back: 2017 and 2018. Santos host Remo, and Athletico Paranaense have Vitória. The last-16 draw has no seeds and makes no allowance for division: you get what you get, and seven of the eight ties cross state lines.

Half this field got here by breaking something in the fifth round, played between 21 April and 15 May. Vitória lost 2-1 at the Maracanã and won 2-0 at the Barradão to knock out Flamengo, the 2024 champions. Juventude lost 1-0 at the Morumbi and then beat São Paulo 3-1 in Caxias do Sul. Chapecoense did the same to Botafogo — 0-1 away, 2-0 at home — and Remo took Bahia apart 5-2 across the two legs. Mirassol saw off Bragantino.

The two who have travelled furthest play in Série B. Fortaleza and Juventude were relegated from the top flight in 2025, so they entered in the second round back in February: four extra rounds and five matches each to reach August, and Juventude had to win one of them on penalties against Tuna Luso of Belém. And that 1999 final watched by 101,581 people? Juventude won it — and they now face Atlético Mineiro. Fortaleza get Palmeiras. The other fourteen came in during April and have played just two matches.

126 clubs: 34 more than last year and the biggest field this competition has ever had. The 2026 cup runs over nine rounds and they are not all played the same way. The first four are one-off matches, with no advantage for anyone and no replay: level at the whistle means penalties on the spot. Of the 93 matches played between 17 February and 19 March, 30 were settled from twelve yards.

Clubs come in by stages, ranked. The 28 lowest-placed sides in the CBF's national club ranking opened the tournament in February — and for them the federation cut the minimum stadium capacity this year from 4,000 seats to 2,000. Another 74 joined in the second round. The 20 Série A clubs do not appear until the fifth, in April, and there the rules change: rounds five through eight are two-legged, away goals count for nothing extra, and a level aggregate goes to penalties again. That is how Atlético Mineiro got past Ceará (3-3, then 4-2 on penalties) and Athletico past Atlético Goianiense (0-0, then 4-1).

The final changes shape from 2025: instead of two legs, a single match on 6 December. And the prize explains why this cup is taken as seriously in Brazil as the league. The winners collect R$78 million for the title — up to R$99.25 million counting every round — and go straight into the 2027 Libertadores group stage; the runners-up take R$34 million and a place in the qualifying rounds. That second berth is new for 2026: until now the cup handed out one continental ticket, from this year it hands out two.