was the 1983 second-division champion and was unexplainably not promoted this time, probably because of Grêmio qualification issue. It is also ironic that Juventus was the only example of a team starting a tournament in first division, relegated to second division during the competition, clinching eventually the second-division title, yet not being promoted to the first division of next year and finally not qualifying to it as it failed also to secure qualification through state league. it was thus not surprising that the internal relegation system was quickly abandoned. First division: 40 teams 1st phase: 8 groups of 5, round-robin, similar to 82–83. Top 3 qualify. 4th place qualify to 8-team play-off. Play-off winner also joined 2nd phase and no team was relegated. 2nd phase: 8 groups of 4 (see 1982–1983). One extra team was qualified to complete remaining 3rd phase berth from the best 3rd-placed teams among all groups (a rather fortuitous criterion, instead of for instance qualifying second-division runners-up) 3rd phase: 4 groups of 4 (see 1982–1983). Champions of second-division play-offs entered this phase. Final phase: 8-team double play-offs. 1985 Copa Brasil This time the tournament changed its structure compared to the previous 4 years. As a result of previous difficulties from traditional teams to qualify from their state league, probably due to increased competitivity of smaller provincial clubs, the tournament secured 20 berths according to historical ranking. The remaining qualified from state leagues. 1984 second division finalists also qualified, thus further stressing the injustice on Juventus (and CSA) in 1983. This principle of a hard core, though already existing in practice, probably influenced for ever the power balance as the traditional teams eventually started challenging CBF's organization. First division: 44 teams. 1st phase: 4 groups. 2 paired groups of 10 teams featuring the traditional clubs qualified by historical ranking, and 2 paired groups of 12 teams with the remaining teams. The 2 groups pairs were treated equally as for qualifying criteria despite the weight of the first pair. Each team would only play the clubs of its paired group in home and away stages, thus not featuring real round-robin system. The champions of each stage would qualify as well the top 2 teams on overall performance over both stages. As such no teams played in this phase the teams of their own group. 2nd phase: 4 groups of 4 teams, double round-robin. As noted, the result of