Big Twelve (Brazilian football)

In Brazilian football, the term Big Twelve (Portuguese: Doze Grandes) refers to a group of twelve clubs: Atlético Mineiro, Botafogo, Corinthians, Cruzeiro, Flamengo, Fluminense, Grêmio, Internacional, Palmeiras, Santos, São Paulo and Vasco da Gama. They are considered to be the most popular and successful sides in Brazilian football, having won all but six editions of the Brasileirão between them since the inception of the tournament.

The clubs

Honours and Popularity

Their status as major clubs in Brazilian football stems from their historical performances at their respective state leagues. For a long time, there were no national tournaments in Brazil (with the first edition of the Brasileirão being only held in 1959) and competition between teams from different states was sparse (with the Torneio Rio-São Paulo, held irregularly between 1933 and 1966 and then from 1993 to 2002, being the most notable tournament of this nature); thus, these clubs first earned their distinguished reputation for being dominant within state borders.

This regional success translated into national and international glory. The Big Twelve clubs have dominated the Brasileirão and the Copa do Brasil and put up great performances at the Copa Libertadores and the Club World Cup (and other equivalent world tournaments).

The Big Twelve are also the best supported clubs in Brazil, enjoying nationwide popularity. Even away from state borders, it isn't hard to find supporters of Big Twelve clubs.[1], often surpassing even local clubs.

Number of supporters in Brazil[2]
Club Supporters
Flamengo 32.5 million
Corinthians 27.3 million
São Paulo 13.6 million
Palmeiras 10.6 million
Vasco da Gama 7.2 million
Atlético Mineiro 7.0 million
Cruzeiro 6.2 million
Grêmio 6.0 million
Internacional 5.6 million
Santos 4.8 million
Fluminense 3.6 million
Botafogo 3.4 million

Controversies

The validity of the concept of a Big Twelve is often topic of debate[3][4][5]. It's at times portrayed as a rigid construct that excludes teams that merit a place in this group and at other times it's argued to be an outdated definition that includes clubs whose place is not merited nowadays.

The case for more teams

Esporte Clube Bahia

Esporte Clube Bahia hails from Salvador, Bahia and is one of the two major clubs from the Campeonato Baiano (the other being Esporte Clube Vitória). It is the only non-Big Twelve club to have two Brasileirão titles to its name (tied with Grêmio and Botafogo and surpassing Atlético Mineiro), notably beating Pelé and Os Santásticos in the final of the 1959 edition. Its supporters rival those of Fluminense and Botafogo and are ahead of any non-Big Twelve ones in numbers.[2] It is, in fact, one of the Clube dos 13's founding members alongside the Big Twelve. Prior its first relegation in 1997, Bahia was considered one of the biggests clubs in Brazil. However, its Brasileirão campaigns have been generally unimpressive since the 1980s; the club spent much of the 2000s outside the first division.

Bahia was relegated in 1997 to the Campeonato Brasileiro Serie B and only come back to the top tier of Brazilian football in 2000 with a political maneuver, after cbf's withdrawal from organizing the championship of that year due to legal problems and handing it to Clube dos 13, because the club failed in achieve the promotion to Serie A in 1998 and 1999. Bahia was again relegated to Serie B in 2003 and relegated to Serie C in 2005, the low-point in the history of the club. The team disputed two seasons of Serie C until achieve its first promotion in history in 2007 to the Serie B, and in 2010 the team was promoted for the first time to the Brasileirão. Bahia was relegated in 2014 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, but this time they only became two seasons out of Série A and made the comeback in the 2017 edition

The club also lags behind Big Twelve clubs in financial assets.[6][7]

Paraná State

From Curitiba one of the main clubs in the city are Coritiba Foot Ball Club and Club Athletico Paranaense and the league this state is the Campeonato Paranaense. The Athletico Paranaense it is often regarded as one of the best-run clubs in Brazil[8], with financial results that rival those of the Big Twelve[6][7]. The club has won the Brasileirão once, in 2001, and its best campaign at the Copa Libertadores was a runner-up showing in 2005. However, the club has a very poor pre-1990s record at the Brasileirão and its fanbase is relatively small compared to Big Twelve clubs and very much contained within Paraná's borders[1], with insignificant national presence.The Coritiba Foot Ball Club have one title of Brazilian League Brasileirão, conquered in 1985 and it was the first club of Paraná to participate Copa Libertadores in 1986, as well as the first club to carry an expression title in its state, the club is known for the biggest football crowd in the state and driven by an unconditional passion. Athletico Paranaense also has the titles of Copa do Brasil, which the neither the G12 clubs Botafogo nor São Paulo have, and also Copa Sudamericana, which Fluminense FC also does not has one or another of its predecessors.

Other clubs

Like the Big Twelve and Bahia, Coritiba and Athletico Paranaense, the teams Guarani Futebol Clube, Associação Portuguesa de Desportos, Goiás Esporte Clube, Sport Club do Recife and Esporte Clube Vitória were also members of the Clube dos 13, that were composed by the most important and traditional on that period.[9] But each one of them had issues after that.

Guarani Futebol Clube, the 1978 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A champion [10] and Sport Club do Recife and the 1987 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A champion, are the other Campeonato Brasileiro Série A champions outside the Big Twelve. They both struggles with financial problems, and Sport has the worst financial situation between all clubs that plays in Campeonato Brasileiro Série A this year.[11]

Goiás Esporte Clube and Esporte Clube Vitória spent mostly of previous seasons on the second division, but achieved good things on the last years. Goiás was the 2010 Copa Sudamericana runner-up,[12] and Vitoria was the 1993 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A and 2010 Copa do Brasil runner-up.[13]

After the "Héverton Case", that made the team been relegated to the second division, the Associação Portuguesa de Desportos was relegated more two times straight, and now do not compete any national championship, been on Campeonato Paulista Série A2.[14]

During the early 2000's, Associação Desportiva São Caetano got noticed in both national and international media after being a finalist of 2002 Copa Libertadores, the most important tournament in South America. They lost to Olimpia of Paraguay on penalties.

After the Red Bull GmbH took over the control of the 1991 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A runner-up, Clube Atlético Bragantino and changed its name to Red Bull Bragantino, the team claims that will be one of the best teams of Brazil in the future.[15][16]

The case for less teams

It is often argued if there is too big a gap even between Big Twelve clubs in honours (outside of state leagues) and fanbase size.[4] Flamengo and Corinthians could be argued to be in a tier of their own in terms of supporters, far above third place São Paulo, but this supposed superiority does not translate into the pitch, with many teams claiming more titles than them in the Brasileirão, Copa do Brasil, Copa Libertadores, and Club World Cup. Similarly, it's sometimes argued if Santos, Fluminense and Botafogo are below their regional rivals (Corinthians, São Paulo and Palmeiras all boast significantly more supporters than Santos; Flamengo and Vasco da Gama lay claim to more international success than Fluminense and Botafogo). However, these three clubs' importance to Brazilian football cannot be understated: Santos's Os Santásticos was the most dominant Brazilian side ever, winning six Brasileirão and eight Campeonato Paulista titles in the 1960s; Botafogo hold the record for most capped players for the Brazilian national football team in World Cups[17]; and Fluminense introduced the sport to Rio de Janeiro, being the oldest active club in Rio, with the birth of the Brazilian national football team happening on its grounds in a friendly against Exeter City[18].

Minor polemics about the status of Vasco da Gama in the big teams also arise during the 2010s, because of the poor performances of the club in the Campeonato Brasileiro, which resulted in three relegations to Série B between 2008 and 2015, high frequency of fighting against relegation, poor performances in Série B to which is expected to a traditional, reputed club in Brazilian football (Vasco da Gama only was promoted in the last round in the seasons 2014 and 2016 thanks to combinations of results, when in both competitions Vasco was the great favorite given the imbalance of tradition and economic power between Vasco da Gama and another teams) and, except for the year of 2011 and the first semester of 2012, lack of competitive teams. Nevertheless, it's a minor polemic; it's near universal that Os Cruzmaltinos, in spite of the terrible decade of 2010s are one of the giants of Brazilian football.

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See also

References
  1. "Mapa das curtidas dos times do Brasil no Facebook", globoesporte.com (in Portuguese), 10 May 2017, retrieved 28 February 2018
  2. "Última pesquisa LANCE/Ibope mostrou Flamengo na frente, mas vantagem menor para o Timão", LANCE! (in Portuguese), 10 May 2017, retrieved 27 February 2018
  3. Grohmann, Gustavo (23 April 2012), "Quais são os times grandes do Brasil?", Terceiro Tempo (in Portuguese), retrieved 27 February 2018
  4. Sulivan, Juan (21 December 2013). "Realmente existe (sic) 12 times grandes aqui no Brasil?" (in Portuguese). Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  5. Rodrigues Alves, Alexandre (26 January 2018), "Não temos apenas 12 times", Revista Acréscimos (in Portuguese), retrieved 28 February 2018
  6. Análise Econômico-Financeira dos Clubes de Futebol Brasileiros - 2017 (PDF) (in Portuguese), Itaú BBA, 22 June 2017
  7. Barros, Davi (2 May 2017), "Clubes têm receitas recorde em 2016, mas consultor avisa: "2017 será ano da verdade"", globoesporte.com (in Portuguese), retrieved 28 February 2018
  8. Barros, Davi (8 January 2018), "Estudo: Atlético-PR é o clube brasileiro com as melhores finanças", globoesporte.com (in Portuguese), retrieved 28 February 2018
  9. "Quatro grandes do Rio anunciam posição conjunta contra Clube dos 13" (in Portuguese). Globo Esporte. February 23, 2011. Retrieved February 23, 2011.
  10. "Esquadrão Imortal - Guarani 1978" (in Portuguese). Imortais do Futebol. December 11, 2013. Retrieved August 4, 2020.
  11. "Sport tem pior cenário financeiro dentre os 20 principais clubes do Brasil; veja o ranking das dívidas" (in Portuguese). Imortais do Futebol. July 3, 2020. Retrieved August 4, 2020.
  12. "Magnífico sorteo de la Copa Nissan Sudamericana 2010 en Asunción" [Magnificent draw of the 2010 Copa Nissan Sudamericana in Asunción] (in Spanish). CONMEBOL. April 28, 2010. Archived from the original on 24 October 2010. Retrieved October 21, 2010.
  13. CBF Club Ranking - official site Archived 2009-01-17 at the Wayback Machine
  14. Rodrigues, Renan; Paradella, Rodrigo (16 December 2013). "STJD pune Portuguesa e mantém Fluminense na Série A; ainda cabe recurso" [STJD punishes Portuguesa and maintains Fluminense in Série A; still subject to appeal]. UOL Esportes (in Portuguese). Rio de Janeiro. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  15. "Red Bull expands global football empire, takes over at Bragantino". SportBusiness SPONSORSHIP. 28 March 2019.
  16. "Bragantino anuncia acordo com o RB Brasil para gestão do time na Série B" (in Portuguese). Globo. 26 March 2019.
  17. Marques, Bruno; Gonçalves, Igor; Qhintella, Thiago (7 May 2014), "Copa: Botafogo segue líder entre clubes que mais cederam jogadores à Seleção", globoesporte.com (in Portuguese), retrieved 28 February 2018
  18. Schmidt, Bruno (7 April 2014), "100 anos da Seleção: 1º rival do Brasil, Exeter se orgulha de lugar na história", globoesporte.com (in Portuguese), retrieved 28 February 2018
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