Paulistão 2026 gets Champions League format, São Paulo's fixtures | OneFootball

It was determined in a draw held on the evening of this Tuesday (11), at Arena Pacaembu, how the matchups of the 2026 Paulista Championship will be, which will have changes in its format, as detailed by the Paulista Football Federation (FPF).

After a long technical council held among the club leaders, the new model of the Paulistão, inspired by the UEFA Champions League, was confirmed. The initial phase will have eight rounds in a round-robin system, but not all clubs, divided into four pots, will face each other.

This ensures that all the classics between Corinthians, Palmeiras, São Paulo, and Santos will necessarily occur in the 1st phase, as they all comprised pot A.

São Paulo, one of the seeded teams, was placed in position A3 and learned about all its rivals. In addition to the three state classics, it will face Portuguesa, Ponte Preta, Mirassol, Primavera, Guarani, and São Bernardo in pursuit of qualifying for the quarter-finals. See in the image below:

The dates and order of Tricolor's opponents in this initial phase will be informed later by the Paulista Federation. The Paulistão will start on January 11 and the grand final is scheduled for March 8.

How does the new Paulistão work?

The initial draw determined the matchups for each team in the 1st phase of the Paulistão, just like the current Champions League. At the end of the eight rounds, the top eight teams will qualify for the quarter-finals, in a single match, as well as the semi-finals, with the home advantage going to the team with the best campaign.

The grand state final remains in two matches, at each participant's home. The FPF, however, is still negotiating with the CBF on how to schedule the two finals, as there is a missing date in the official calendar for 2026. Two teams will continue to be relegated to Série A2.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.