São Paulo set for back-to-back derbies in 2026 Paulistão: fixtures, TV | OneFootball

While São Paulo was conceding goals non-stop in the humiliation against Fluminense in the Brasileirão, the Paulista Football Federation (FPF) released the basic schedule for the 1st phase of the 2026 Paulistão late Thursday night (27th).

Thus, Tricolor learned its sequence of matches and the base dates for the eight rounds of the initial phase of the state championship, which begins on January 11 and ends on February 15, before moving on to the start of the knockout stage.

São Paulo will debut away from home against this year’s sensation, Mirassol, and will have almost all three major classics in sequence, interrupted only by the match against Portuguesa.

In the 3rd round, Tricolor visits Corinthians, then hosts Lusa, and afterwards has back-to-back classics against Palmeiras away and Santos at home.

After a long technical meeting among club officials, the new Paulistão model, inspired by the UEFA Champions League, was confirmed. The initial phase will have eight rounds in a round-robin points 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 take place in the 1st phase, since they all made up pot A.

São Paulo, one of the top seeds, was placed in position A3 and got to know 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 a spot in the quarterfinals, played as a single match, with ties decided by penalties. The semifinals will also be single matches, and the grand final is scheduled for the 8th. The bottom two teams at the end of the first phase will be relegated to Paulistão A2 2027.

Check out below the dates and matches for Tricolor:

Where will it be broadcast?

The 2026 Paulistão will have Record TV, TNT Sports (TNT and HBO Max), and the YouTube channel CazéTV as the rights holders for live game broadcasts, expanding reach and diversifying the audience across free-to-air TV, pay TV, streaming, and digital platforms.

Record and YouTube, on CazéTV, will broadcast 19 matches of the competition (Final, 2 semifinal matches, 2 quarterfinal matches, 14 first phase matches, including 4 classics).

TNT Sports will start broadcasting all Paulistão matches from 2026 onwards. All tournament matches will be streamed on HBO Max, while selected matches will be shown on the TNT channel (Pay TV).

How does the new Paulistão work?

The initial draw defined the matchups for each team in the 1st phase of Paulistão, just like in the current Champions League. At the end of the eight rounds, the top eight teams qualify for the quarterfinals, played as a single match, as is the semifinal, with home advantage for the team with the better record. The grand state final was expected to be played over two matches, but the FPF could not secure a new date with the CBF. Thus, the decision will also be a single match.

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