São Paulo discover Copinha 2026 group and rivals: how to watch | OneFootball

São Paulo learned on the night of this Tuesday (25) about its group and rivals for the 2026 São Paulo Junior Football Cup, the popular and traditional Copinha, after a disclosure event of the main youth competition held at Arena Pacaembu.

The under-20 team of Tricolor, led by Allan Barcellos, is part of group 19, which will be based in the city of Sorocaba. São Paulo's opponents are Real Soccer-SP, Maruinense-SE, and Independente-AP. All of them are debuting clubs in the Copinha, which will kick off on January 2.

Tricolor is the current champion of the São Paulo Cup, after a historic title won at the beginning of this year, and is also the second most successful team in history, with five titles, alongside Fluminense and Internacional, only behind Corinthians (11 wins).

The competition format remains the same. There are 128 clubs divided into 32 groups, with four teams each, and the top two from each group advance. From the second phase, it becomes a knockout stage in a single match until the grand final to be held on January 25 of next year. Players born between 2005 and 2010 will be allowed to compete in the tournament.

THE NEWS AND WHERE TO WATCH

The big change was the expansion of the number of pre-registered players for each club, now to 40 names, with 30 officially called to compete in the Copinha. The change was made due to the advancement of the 2026 Paulistão to the early days of the year.

Another novelty will be the broadcast of the matches of future national stars by Record on open TV, replacing the Globo network. All 255 matches of the Copinha will be broadcast live. In addition to Record, Record News, Xsports, and the YouTube channels of Cazé TV and Paulistão will televise the matches of the youngsters. The detailed schedule of the games and where to watch each match will be announced later by the São Paulo Football Federation.

TRICOLOR HISTORY

Five-time champion after lifting the trophy in the years 1993, 2000, 2010, 2019, and 2025, São Paulo also has seven runner-up finishes, in 1981, 1992, 1994, 2001, 2004, 2007, and 2018.

The last title, this year, came with the great generation of Alves, Ferreira, and Ryan Francisco, the first two already in Europe. With the injury of the top scorer Ryan in the final, however, it was Paulinho who shone, coming in and scoring a decisive goal against Corinthians. Today, he trains with Crespo in the professional team, due to the excess of injuries in the Argentine coach's squad.

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