Yellow Module – or Taça Roberto Gomes Pedrosa. Organized by CBF in response to the run-away championship of the big clubs – which looks like rival and somewhat legitimate national championship, but further negotiations made it something impossible to make sense of: after the big clubs run away, it was obvious that the teams playing in the Yellow Module were second tier. The effort of CBF to restore its authority on the national championship also made the Yellow Module something like Second Division – teams were going to be promoted to the run-away league and not the other way. But CBF scheduled a final phase for contesting the title between the best 2 teams of the Yellow Module against the best 2 of the Green Module – that equalized the rival championship on the same footing. And when the Green Module teams refused to play such ‘big final’… the winner of the Yellow Module technically became the champion of Brazil – on one hand, the Greens abandoned official stage and there was no other way by to declare Yellow champion. On the other hand, Yellow teams had to play in the Copa Libertadores because the Green Module legally was outside the official members of the South American Football Federation, but CBF was. However, circumstances once again put an obstacle and at the end the Yellow Module had 2 winners, not one. Of course, the Green Module had it own champion and thus the big clubs did not recognize the CBF champions. To say that Yellow Module was the real top Brazilian championship could be rested on the fact that in the official records now stays only a note regarding 1987 Second Level championship ‘not played’ and the same list of Brazilian champions the winners of the Yellow Module are listed. Against that is another fact: 8 teams from the Yellow Module were promoted to the Green Module – going up, effectively, to higher league. ‘Consider’ this championship as you like… at the end.
First Phase. Two groups of 8 teams. In the first stage, Group A teams played against Group B teams. In the second stage, teams played the other teams inside their groups. Winners of the groups from both stages qualified to the semifinals. Trouble started before any matches were played… América-RJ was invited by CBF to join Group B. But the team protested for being relegated to the Yellow Module and withdrew from the competition. Thus, 15 instead of 16 teams participated – but at the very end once again there were 16 teams…
FINAL TABLE – 1st Stage
GROUP A
TEAM Pts P W D L GF GA DIF
1. Clube ATLÉTICO Paranaense (Curitiba-PR) 9 7 3 3 1 8 5 3 Qualified
2. GUARANI Futebol Clube (Campinas-SP) 9 7 4 1 2 9 6 3
3. CRICIÚMA Esporte Clube (Criciúma-SC) 8 7 4 0 3 9 9 0
4. Associação PORTUGUESA de Desportos (São Paulo-SP) 8 7 3 2 2 10 6 4
5. ATLÉTICO Club Goianiense (Goiânia-GO) 8 7 3 2 2 7 6 1
6. Associação Atlética INTERNACIONAL (Limeira-SP) 7 7 3 1 3 5 7 -2
7. RIO BRANCO Atlético Clube (Cariacica-ES) 6 7 2 2 3 4 5 -1
8. JOINVILLE Esporte Clube (Joinville-SC) 4 7 1 2 4 6 10 -4
Tie-braking match for 1st place: Guarani 0-2 Atletico-PR. Atletico-PR qualified to the finals.
GROUP B
TEAM Pts P W D L GF GA DIF
1. SPORT Club do Recife (Recife-PE) 13 8 5 3 0 13 2 11 Qualified
2. Esporte Clube VITÓRIA (Salvador-BA) 9 8 3 3 2 8 6 2
3. BANGU Atlético Clube (Rio de Janeiro-RJ) 8 8 3 2 3 5 5 0
4. Clube NÁUTICO Capibaribe (Recife-PE) 6 8 3 0 5 8 13 -5
5. TREZE Futebol Clube (Campina Grande-PB) 6 8 2 2 4 8 10 -2
6. CEARÁ Sporting Club (Fortaleza-CE) 6 8 2 2 4 5 7 -2
7. Centro Sportivo Alagoano – CSA (Maceió-AL) 5 8 2 1 5 7 15 -8
FINAL TABLE – 2nd Stage
GROUP A
TEAM Pts P W D L GF GA DIF
1-Guarani 10 7 4 2 1 9 3 6 Qualified
2-Criciúma 9 7 3 3 1 8 3 5
3-Atlético-PR 8 7 2 4 1 8 5 3
4-Portuguesa 7 7 3 1 3 3 4 -1
5-Internacional 7 7 1 5 1 2 2 0
6-Rio Branco 6 7 2 2 3 4 7 -3
7-Joinville 5 7 1 3 3 2 6 -4
8-Atlético-GO 4 7 1 2 4 1 7 -6
GROUP B
TEAM Pts P W D L GF GA DIF
1-Sport 6 9 4 1 1 6 4 2
2-Bangu 6 8 3 2 1 8 3 5 Qualified
3-Vitória 6 8 2 4 0 7 4 3
4-Treze 6 6 2 2 2 7 6 1
5-Náutico 6 4 1 2 3 5 9 -4
6-Ceará 6 4 2 0 4 4 7 -3
7-CSA 6 3 0 3 3 2 6 -4
Tie-braking match for 2nd place: Bangu 1 – 1 Vitoria 0-0 overtime, 4-3 penalty shoot-out.
Since Sport had already won the first stage, the second stage runner-up,
Bangu, qualified for the semifinal. For winning both stages, Sport earned an
extra point in the semifinals. And that was another confusion – what ‘extra point’ since the next stage was direct elimination?
Semi-finals:
Atletico-PR – Guarani 0-0 0-0 1-0 in extra time
Bangu – Sport 3-2 1-3
Final:
Guarani – Sport 2-0 0-3. Goals scored did not count, so it was a win vs a win – the second leg went into extra time, which ended 0-0. Penalty shoot-out – and now the the big drama, or the big laugh, but in any case affecting the championship in weird way: when the penalty shoot-out reached result of 11-11, the management of the teams got together and decided to end the penalties and split the title… once again, the clubs had the upper hand over CBF. At first – no big deal: there were still finals to be played against the 2 best from the Green Module and Guarani and Sport already qualified to that grand phase. When the Green teams (Flameng and Internacional Porto Alegre) refused to participate, the question of who should be the 1987 champion in the eyes of CBF loomed again – and hastily another final between Guarani and Sport was scheduled. Again 2 legs, but somehow this final remains a mystery to this very day: apparently, Sport won by aggregate 1-0 – and speculatively, it is considered that ‘probably’ the first leg hosted by Guarani ended 0-0 and the second Sport at home 1-0. Probably. May be.
And on the strength of those last games Sport (Recife) was considered both champions of the Yellow Module and Brazil.
But then promotions had to arranged and that led to a ‘final table’.
FINAL TABLE (doesn’t include the tie-breaking games)
TEAM Pts P W D L GF GA DIF
1-Sport Recife 26 18 11 4 3 27 12 15 Promoted
2-Guarani 24 18 10 4 4 21 12 9 Promoted
3-Bangu 18 16 7 4 5 17 13 4 Promoted
4-Atlético-PR 18 16 5 8 3 16 11 5 Promoted
5-Criciúma 17 14 7 3 4 17 12 5 Promoted
6-Vitória 17 14 5 7 2 15 10 5 Promoted
7-Portuguesa 15 14 6 3 5 13 10 3 Promoted
8-Internacional 14 14 4 6 4 7 9 -2
9-Treze 12 14 4 4 6 15 16 -1
10-Rio Branco 12 14 4 4 6 8 12 -4
11-Atlético-GO 12 14 4 4 6 8 13 -5
12-Ceará 10 14 4 2 8 9 14 -5
13-Náutico 10 14 4 2 8 13 22 -9
14-Joinville 9 14 2 5 7 8 16 -8
15-CSA 8 14 2 4 8 9 21 -12
The next bitter pill to swallow…
America (Rio de Janeiro), which refused to play in the Yellow Module, protesting such ‘diminishing’, was the 8th promoted club. Inyternacional (Limeira) protested in vain… by right, they should have been promoted, but CBF chose otherwise. Again, it was weird – the run-aways did not invite America to their own championship, yet, America blamed the CBF for ‘diminishing’ them by inclusion in the Yellow Module. As a result, they were promoted without playing even a single match – more, they refused to participate, abandoned an official championship. Their position won somewhat, at the expense of innocent Internacional Limeira. The wrong were right and the right were wrong…
And somewhat Brazil had a national champion – or may be two? Since both Sport and Guarani agreed on their own to split the Yellow Module title and that was at the end the only CBF completed championship, perhaps they should have been national champions together… but no. Not in the eyes of the big clubs, playing their own Green Module championship, not in the eyes of CBF, which had to recognize the crooked ‘finals’ as a national title finals…
Consider Sport (Recife) national champions of Brazil in 1987. As you can see by the wording on the picture, for many they were not Second level winners, but champions of First level. Then again… for many they were not and for statisticians the season remains one huge mess.