Second Level. 24 teams played in it and the formula was three stages, all played in groups. There were no ties – tied matches were followed by penalty shoot-outs. 3 points were given for straight win, 2 points for winning by penalty shoot-out, 1 point for losing by penalty shoot-out. Two teams were promoted to First Level – the top 2 in the final stage, After it the same two top teams played a final for the Second Level title. Relegation was unclear… at the end, it did not matter were there rules for relegation or not, because in the 1989 Third Level was abandoned and Second Level increased to 96 teams. At a glance – second rate teams played at this level, which looked fair deal, but there was at least one anomaly: Valeriodoce Esporte Clube (Itabira, Minas Gerais) popped in. Obscure club, never playing in the Brazilian championship before. How and why they suddenly appeared in the Second Level? Because the states had a number of assigned lots and teams qualified from the local championship. Yet, it was difficult to follow the rules for participation and relegation/promotion rules hardly made sense in championships seemingly using two different criteria in the same time. The championship was greatly simplified and at least it was easy to understand and follow, but… the championship ended with a scandal anyway. At the first stage the last teams in every group were decided relegated. It did not really match anything, for only 2 teams from Third Level were going to be promoted. Were they really relegated after the elimination of Third Level? May be a look at the 1989 season is in order…
Here are the teams playing in the 1989 Second Level championship and since there was no final table, the whole season will be shown after that:
1-Associação Esportiva Catuense (Alagoinhas-BA)
2-Fluminense Futebol Clube (Feira de Santana-BA)
3-Ceará Sporting Club (Fortaleza-CE)
4-Rio Branco Atlético Clube (Vitória-ES)
5-Atlético Club Goianiense (Goiânia-GO)
6-Operário Futebol Clube (Campo Grande-MS)
7-América Futebol Clube (Belo Horizonte-MG)
8-Uberlândia Esporte Clube (Uberlândia-MG)
9-Valeriodoce Esporte Clube (Itabira-MG)
10-Treze Futebol Clube (Campina Grande-PB)
11-Grêmio de Esportes Maringá (Maringá-PR)
12-Londrina Esporte Clube (Londrina-PR)
13-Central Sport Club (Caruaru-PE)
14-Clube Náutico Capibaribe (Recife-PE)
15-Americano Futebol Clube (Campos-RJ)
16-Sociedade Esportiva e Recreativa Caxias do Sul (Caxias do Sul-RS)
17-Esporte Clube Juventude (Caxias do Sul-RS)
18-Esporte Clube Pelotas (Pelotas-RS)
19-Avaí Futebol Clube (Florianópolis-SC)
20-Joinville Esporte Clube (Joinville-SC)
21-Associação Atlética Internacional (Limeira-SP)
22-Associação Atlética Ponte Preta (Campinas-SP)
23-Botafogo Futebol Clube (Ribeirão Preto-SP)
24-Clube Atlético Juventus (São Paulo-SP)
First stage.
Group C
Table
1-Náutico 10 6 1/ 1 2 11- 5 21 Qualified
2-Fluminense-BA 10 4 3/ 3 0 10- 4 21 Qualified
3-Catuense 10 4 2/ 2 2 15-12 18 Qualified
4-Ceará 10 2 2/ 1 5 6-11 11 Qualified ———————————————–
5-Central 10 1 3/ 2 4 3- 8 11 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
6-Treze 10 1 1/ 3 5 7-12 8 Relegated
Group D
1-Ponte Preta 10 4 2/ 2 2 13- 7 18 Qualified
2-Americano 10 4 1/ 4 1 14- 9 18 Qualified
3-América-MG 10 4 2/ 2 2 10- 6 18 Qualified
4-Valeriodoce 10 4 2/ 1 3 12-10 17 Qualified ———————————————–
5-Juventus 10 2 2/ 2 4 9- 9 12 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
6-Rio Branco-ES 10 1 2/ 0 7 6-23 7 Relegated
Group E
1-Internacional-SP 10 5 3/ 1 1 11- 6 22 Qualified
2-Botafogo-SP 10 4 1/ 2 3 10- 8 16 Qualified
3-Atlético-GO 10 4 0/ 3 3 17-13 15 Qualified
4-Operário-MS 10 3 2/ 2 3 14-13 15 Qualified ———————————————–
5-Grêmio Maringá 10 3 2/ 1 4 7-13 14 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
6-Uberlândia 10 1 2/ 1 6 9-15 8 Relegated
Group F
1-Joinville 10 4 4/ 2 0 16- 9 22 Qualified
2-Caxias 10 4 2/ 2 2 13-11 18 Qualified
3-Avaí 10 3 1/ 4 2 10- 6 15 Qualified
4-Juventude 10 3 2/ 0 5 6-10 13 Qualified ———————————————–
5-Londrina 10 3 1/ 1 5 8-13 12 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
6-Pelotas 10 2 1/ 2 5 8-12 10 Relegated
Second stage.
Group G
1-Operário-MS 6 5 0/ 0 1 9- 4 15 Qualified
2-Caxias 6 4 0/ 1 1 10- 4 13 Qualified ———————————————–
3-Botafogo-SP 6 1 1/ 1 3 5- 7 6
4-Juventude 6 0 1/ 0 5 2-11 2
Group H
1-Internacional-SP 6 4 1/ 0 1 11- 6 14 Qualified
2-Joinville 6 3 0/ 1 2 5- 4 10 Qualified ———————————————–
3-Atlético-GO 6 2 0/ 0 4 6- 6 6
4-Avaí 6 2 0/ 0 4 8- 6 6
Group I
1-Ponte Preta 4 3 0/ 0 1 5- 3 9 Qualified
2-Americano 4 2 0/ 0 2 3- 3 6 Qualified ———————————————–
3-Fluminense-BA 4 1 0/ 0 3 2- 4 3
Obs.: Alleging financial problems, Ceará abandoned the competition.
Group J
1-Náutico 6 4 0/ 1 1 9- 7 13 Qualified
2-Valeriodoce 6 3 2/ 0 1 7- 5 13 Qualified ———————————————–
3-América-MG 6 3 0/ 0 3 7- 4 9
4-Catuense 6 0 0/ 1 5 4-11 1
Third stage
Group K
1-Internacional-SP 6 4 1/ 1 0 15- 6 15 Qualified
2-Náutico 6 3 1/ 1 1 11- 8 12 Qualified ———————————————–
3-Operário-MS 6 0 2/ 1 3 3-11 5
4-Valeriodoce 6 1 0/ 1 4 9-13 4
Group L
1-Americano 6 3 0/ 2 1 6- 6 11 Qualified
2-Ponte Preta 6 2 2/ 0 2 8- 6 10 Qualified ———————————————–
3-Joinville 6 2 1/ 1 2 6- 7 9
4-Caxias 6 2 0/ 0 4 8- 9 6
Final phase
1-Internacional-SP 6 2 3/ 0 1 7- 6 12 Promoted, Qualified
2-Náutico 6 2 2/ 1 1 6- 5 11 Promoted, Qualified ———————————————–
3-Ponte Preta 6 3 0/ 2 1 10- 6 11
4-Americano 6 0 0/ 2 4 2- 8 2
So far, so good, but…. At first, Ponte Preta was declared promoted. However, as usual, the tiebreaking criteria of the tournament was unclear. Náutico contested Ponte Preta’s promotion, alleging that the first tiebreaking criterion was the number of wins in the whole tournament and not the number of wins in the final phase. CBF decided to award the promotion to Náutico. Back to the old chaos of protesting, contesting…
Anyhow, Inter and Nautico were promoted, but still had to play a final for the Second Level title. The final was played in February 1989 in Limeria and the host team won 2-1.
Nautico – Clube Náutico Capibaribe (Recife-PE) – ended 2nd and perhaps that was fair, considering that they reached the final only after contesting the rules. But they were promoted to First Level and that was what mattered most – back among the big boys!
Internacional – Associação Atlética Internacional (Limeira-SP) – won the Second Level title for 1988. Of course, wonderful achievement of one of the smaller clubs from Sao Paulo state. Going up to play First Level football was also wonderful.