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This entry presents the two main national and official competitions between state champions that preceded the Taça Brasil de Futebol, namely, the 1920-CBD Champions Tournament and the 1937-FBF Champions Tournament, which are two different competitions, only with the same intention, challenge between state champions.

Winners of the competitions were:

1920: CA Paulistano from São Paulo
1937: Atlético Mineiro from Belo Horizonte

1920 Torneio dos Campeões

The tournament of 1920 was held in March in Rio de Janeiro in the format of a league ("round robin"). All matches took place in the Estádio das Laranjeiras of Fluminense FC. It was the first competition organised by the Confederação Brasileira de Deportes, the precursor of today's CBF. Participants were the following winners of their state championships of 1919:

the State Champions of Rio de Janeiro: Fluminense FC, from the city of Rio de Janeiro
the State Champions of São Paulo: CA Paulistano from the city of São Paulo
the State Champions of Rio Grande do Sul: Grêmio Esportivo Brasil from the city of Pelotas

Paulistano had to play without their star Rubens Salles who had to stay back in São Paulo due to undeferrable commitments. Grêmio Brasil featured Ismael Alvariza, who became in December 1920 the first player from a club outside Rio and São Paulo to play in the national team.

According to a report by Placar (1976), the competition was called "Brazilian Championship of Champions Clubs".^[1]

The matches

Paulistano 7 × 3 Brasil de Pelotas

25 March 1920

Paulistano: Arnaldo - Orlando (c), Carlito - Clodoaldo, Mariano, Sergio - Zonzo, Mário Andrade, Friedenreich, Carlos Araújo, Cassiano. Coach: Angelo Bernardelli.
Brasil: Frank - Nunes, Zabaleta - Flóriano, Rossell, Victório “Babá” (o Waldomiro) - Faria, Alberto Côrrea, Proença, Ignácio, Alvariza.
Referee: Henrique Vignal (CR Flamengo, RJ).
Goals: 4' Friedenreich, 11' M. Andrade, 17' Friedenreich, 25' M. Andrade, 29' Friedenreich, 42' Ignácio, 54' C. Araujo, 64' C. Araujo, 78' Proença, 82' Alberto.

Fluminense 1 × 4 Paulistano

28 March 1920

Fluminense: Marcos Mendonça - Othelo, Chico Netto (c) - Laís, Osvaldo Gomes, Fortes - Mano, Zezé, Harry Welfare, Machado, Bacchi. Coach: Pode Pedersen.
Paulistano: Arnaldo - Orlando (c), Carlito - Sergio, Carlos Araújo, Mariano - Zonzo, Mário Andrade, Friedenreich, Botelho, Cassiano. Coach: Angelo Bernardelli.
Referee: Eduardo Gibson (São Cristóvão AC, RJ).
Goals: 2' Zezé, 40' Friedenreich, 50' M. Andrade, 69' Botelho, 89' M. Andrade.

Fluminense 6 × 2 Brasil de Pelotas

3 April 1920

Fluminense: Marcos Mendonça - Othelo, Chico Netto - Laís, Honório, Fortes - Mário, Zezé, Harry Welfare, Machado, Bacchi. Coach: Pode Pedersen.
Brasil: Frank - Nunes, Zabaleta - Flóriano, Rossell, Victorino - Faria, Alberto Côrrea, Proença, Ignácio, Alvariza.
Referee: Carlos Santos (SC Mangueira, RJ).
Goals: Welfare e Zezé, no 1º tempo, e Zezé, Pelágio Proença, Zezé, Zezé e Machado.

Final table:

Pl.	Club	Matches	W - D - L	Goals	Points
1.	CA Paulistano	2	2 - 0 - 0	11-4	4-0
2.	Fluminense FC	2	1 - 0 - 1	7-6	2-2
3.	Grêmio Brasil	2	0 - 0 - 2	5-13	0-4

1937 Copa dos Campeões Estaduais

The 1937 tournament was organised by the Federação Brasileira de Futebol in January and held in a league format ("round robin") with home and away legs. Participants were the five state champions of 1936 and a delegation of the sports club of the navy, which qualified through an internal process. Participating teams were:

the State Champions of Rio de Janeiro (Federal District): Fluminense FC from Rio de Janeiro
the State Champions of São Paulo: Associação Portuguesa de Desportos from São Paulo
the State Champions of Minas Gerais: Atlético Mineiro from Belo Horizonte
the State Champions of Espirito Santo: Rio Branco AC from Vitória
the State Champions of the municipality of Campos dos Goytacazes: SC Alliança from Campos dos Goytacazes
and Liga de Sports da Marinha, the sports club of the navy, coached by the renowned Nicolas Ladany, based in Rio de Janeiro^[2]

Atlético Mineiro, Fluminense and Portuguesa were automatically qualified. The other participants played for one more place:

Qualification

6 January 1937		SC Aliança - Liga de Sports da Marinha		0-2
11 January 1937		Rio Branco AC - Liga de Sports da Marinha		2-0 aet

The Matches

10 January 1937	Portuguesa - Fluminense FC	4-1
13 January 1937	Fluminense FC - Atlético Mineiro	6-0
13 January 1937	Rio Branco AC - Portuguesa	3-1
17 January 1937	Fluminense FC - Rio Branco AC	5-2
20 January 1937	Rio Branco AC - Atlético Mineiro	1-1
24 January 1937	Atlético Mineiro - Portuguesa	5:0
24 January 1937	Rio Branco AC - Fluminense FC	4-3
27 January 1937	Fluminense FC - Portuguesa	6-2
31 January 1937	Portuguesa - Rio Branco AC	4-0
31 January 1937	Atlético Mineiro - Fluminense FC	4-1
3 February 1937	Atlético Mineiro - Rio Branco AC	5-1
14 February 1937	Portuguesa - Atlético Mineiro	2-3

Final table

Pl.	Club	Matches	W - D - L	Goals	Points
1.	Atlético Mineiro	6	4 - 1 - 1	18-10	9-3
2.	Fluminense FC	6	3 - 0 - 3	22-16	6-6
3.	Rio Branco AC	6	2 - 1 - 3	10-19	5-7
4.	Portuguesa de Desportos	6	2 - 0 - 4	13-18	4-8

Winner was Atlético Mineiro with the following team: Kafunga, Clóvis - Florindo, Quim - Zezé Procópio, Lola, Bala, Alcindo - Paulista, Abraz, Alfredo Bernardino, Bazzoni, Guará, Nicola, Resende, Elair - Coach: Floriano Peixoto. Atlético usually played in a 2-3-5 formation.^[3]

References

Marcelo Leme de Arruda, Paulo Azeredo: Copa dos Campeões Estaduais 1920, Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation and RSSSF Brazil, 30 August 2005.
Marcelo Leme de Arruda, Paulo Azeredo: Copa dos Campeões Estaduais 1936, Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation and RSSSF Brazil, 30 March 2008.
Santiago Cruz: Torneio dos Campeões (Belo Horizonte/MG) 1967, Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation and RSSSF Brazil, April 2006.

Notes:

^ Pinheiro, Mauro (1976-05-14). Primeiro título nacional ficou com o Paulistano (in Portuguese). Revista Placar; Editora Abril. Ano de 1920, ainda em pleno amadorismo, a CBD organizou o primeiro Campeonato Brasileiro de Clubes Campeões (...)
^ Liga de Sports da Marinha was founded in 1915 by navy officers. After several name changes it has been known since 1975 as Comissão de Desportos da Marinha. S. Comissão de Desportos da Marinha, Rio de Janeiro via Internet Archive.
^ 1937, O Canto do Galo: Galopédia.