eliminated teams from these groups be systematically ranked higher than the eliminated teams from the lower tier. 1987 Copa União The 1987 tournament was a direct consequence of the turmoil of the 1986 competition and rates arguably as the most controversial ever, even today. While for ranking considerations we will not enter the matter, we will consider that as in many previous edition that the two Green and Yellow modules constituted indeed a single division with two tiers, as in many tournaments before. Ranking issues: according to this approach, all play-off finalists (including semi-finals) from both modules are awarded top placings. Other teams from Green module were given higher placing than Yellow module as the latter constituted in practice a lower tier group. As for the top placings, CBF's official placings are reconducted. For ranking purposes the impact is much lower than the real issue as the Copa União finalists only conceded 2 ranking points. First division: 32 teams Green module (Copa União) : 16 teams, 13 from the "Clube dos 13" association plus 3 invited teams. This top-tier did not include thus Guarani, previous-year runner-up (on penalty kicks), and América-RJ, 1986 3rd place. It included however traditional Botafogo, placed 35th in 1986 and meant to be relegated to second division according to CBF initial scheduling. Even worse, it also included Coritiba, 1985 champions but only placed 65th in 1986, thus theoretically meant to join originally third division. Yellow module: 16 teams. 12 from the remaining 28 teams meant to originally constitute first division. 4 added teams from the originally-relegated 1986 second-phase 8 teams (bottom 2 of each group). Here also criterium for qualification was manifestly team traditionality. In order probably to save the face for Botafogo non-relegation as it placed also among these bottom 8, only the last bottom team (instead of 2) was relegated. This saved the face not only of Botafogo as it had indeed placed 8th (out 9) in its group, but also of Sport and Vitória. Inconsistently enough, Nacional also should have qualified as 8th place in its group, but one team had to be sacrificed against Coritiba secured berth in Green module. Nacional was the one, though it had a better season record than Sport, for obvious political reasons. Ironically indeed, Sport eventually clinched not only the yellow module title but also the overall title despite this in extremis qualification. Also noteworthy the relegation