The 2023 Paulista Championship is coming! Get ready to root for your favorite teams. 

However, as the Brasileirão only starts in April and everyone just wants some good football to watch, also get to know Copinha in our article below, the Junior Football Championship which is already taking place.

The competition is about to start, so get ready and find out all the details so you don't miss any big matches.

In this article we will show you everything you need to know, what the Campeonato Paulista is, when the games take place, which clubs will participate and much more.

The Paulistão, or Campeonato Paulista, is a regional competition in the state of São Paulo, and is the oldest championship in Brazil.

Where the main clubs in São Paulo compete for this great title, therefore, the history of this championship is very long.

This competition is divided into four divisions, the best clubs in the fourth move up to the third, the best in the third move up to the second, and so on.

In the main division are the biggest clubs in São Paulo, such as São Paulo, Corinthians, Palmeiras, among others.

These big teams are always present, however, the other places are always highly contested.

Charles Miller visited England and implemented the sport when he returned to Brazil, creating the Campeonato Paulista in 1902.

In the first competition, only five clubs competed, São Paulo Athletic, Internacional, Mackenzie, Germânia and Paulistano.

At that time, sport was only for the elite, where black and poor people could not even practice it.

However, football became popular little by little until everyone had the opportunity to play football.

The first club that belonged to the “people” was Corinthians, formed by the working class.

In 1933, athletes finally became professional football players, and Paulistão was officially the first professional football tournament.

At the end of 1960, other competitions began to emerge, and took away some of the importance of the Campeonato Paulista.

Paulistão has the participation of 16 clubs, divided into four groups of four teams that will face each other for the title of this competition.

Therefore, check out the groups below:

First – Group A:

Second – Group B:

Third – Group C:

Fourth – Group D:

In fact, group A in Paulistão has great teams, and is considered the group of death for this 2023 edition.

The Campeonato Paulista is a little different from other competitions with a group stage.

Instead of playing with clubs from their own group, each team faces all clubs from all other groups, for a total of 12 games, one-way.

The two best teams in each group advance in the competition, and what's more, the two with the fewest points in the championship fall to Series A2, one division below the main one.

After that, the top two from each group advance to the quarterfinals and play a single game, and so on in the semis, until the final.

However, the final is also a little different, it takes place in two stages, with a first game and a second game, which makes the story much more exciting.

This year's Paulistão starts on January 15th, and everyone is already looking forward to seeing how their clubs arrive for this season.

As this competition starts before the Brasileirão, it is a great chance to see if transfers or new coaches have strengthened the squads.

With new players and coaches, Paulistão is the first opportunity of the year to see, in competition, how the clubs are performing

In fact, the group stage games take place between January 15th and March 5th, after that, things start to pick up.

As for the quarter-finals, only the two best clubs from each group go through, the competition becomes more difficult, and each stage even more complicated.

The quarterfinals are scheduled to take place on March 11th and 12th, while the Semifinal games are scheduled for March 18th and 19th.

The grand final, as there are two games, round trip, the dates are April 2nd and 9th. 

Who will take the competition this year? Will Santos be able to catch up to Palmeiras in the number of titles? Or will Corinthians isolate itself even more at the top of the competition with 30 titles already won?

See below the greatest champions of the Campeonato Paulista:

The biggest champion, to date, is Corinthians, with 30 titles won, the team has a great advantage for being one of the first clubs to participate in this competition.

However, it also dominates the current scenario, having a beautiful sequence of titles in this competition in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

In 2020, they narrowly missed their fourth consecutive title, losing to Palmeiras in the final.

The great Santos team is also one of the great powers in this competition, winning seven of its 22 titles in the last 20 years. 

He had a very important sequence in the years 2010, 2011 and 2012, winning Paulistão consecutively on these dates, at this time, he still had Neymar playing spectacular football, and leading Santos in winning these titles.

These were the biggest champions of this competition. Be sure to check out our other football content.

And if you like following an exciting competition, be sure to check out our article on the biggest club football competition, and see the next Champions League clashes.