Palmeiras and Santos will enter the year of 2011 as the teams with the most Brazilian Championship titles: eight each. This comes as a result of the Brazilian Football Confederation’s eminent decision to equalise the Taça Brasil (Brazil Cup) 1959-1968 as well as the Roberto Gomes Pedrosa and Taça de Prata (Silver Cup) tournaments 1967-1970 to today’s Brasileirão, giving them all equal status as National Championship tournaments.
With CBF’s decision, Palmeiras doubles up on national titles, adding their Brazil Cup triumphs from 1960 and 1967 and the Robertão titles from 1967 and 1969 to their already four recognised titles from 1972, 1973, 1993 and 1994. Santos will in turn compute eight Championships instead of two, as the paulista team won the Brazil Cup five years in a row (1961-1965) in addition to the Roberto Gomes Pedrosa in 1968. The other four teams that can add titles to their CV’s are Bahia (now recognised as the first ever Brazilian champion due to their Brazil Cup title of 1959), Cruzeiro, Botafogo and Fluminense.
Eternal Palmeiras idol Ademir da Guia, nicknamed “The Divine”, celebrates the decision, now being able to take credit for a total of five national titles: the Brazil Cup of 1967, the two Robertão in 1967 and 1969, and the two titles of 1972-1973. “We have been waiting a long time for this”, Ademir tells the press. “These championships included the teams that today fight it out for the National Championship. There’s no difference. They (the titles) were very hard to conquer. We have for a long time anxiously awaited this recognition”, he concludes.
Below, compare the current and future Brazilian champions table (source: globoesporte).
ANYTHING PALMEIRAS 