The Copa União (Union Cup) had two modules: The Green and The Yellow. The Green was won by Flamengo. The Yellow was won by Sport Recife. According to the championship rules, the winners of both modules should play with the runner-up of the opposite module. The winners would then decide the championship. However, Flamengo refused to play the matches and was disqualified. Then Flamengo went to court wanting to be recognized as champion, however in 2017 the Supreme Court decided, in a final decision, that the champion of the Copa União was the Sport Recife for having complied with the rules of the game and winning the final game with the runner-up in the yellow group. In 2019 the brazilian soccer confederation (CBF) published that the Flamengo also deserves to be called the brazilian champion of 1987 Background In 1987, the CBF announced it had no financial conditions to organize the Brazilian football championship, a mere few weeks before it was scheduled to begin. As a result, the thirteen most popular football clubs in Brazil created a league, dubbed the Club of the 13, to organize a championship of their own. This tournament was called Copa União and was run by the 16 clubs that eventually took part in it (Santa Cruz, Coritiba and Goiás were invited to join), completely free from CBF authority (a move not unlike the creation of club-administered leagues in Europe). The CBF initially stood by the Club of the 13 decision. However, weeks later, with the competition already underway, and under pressure from football clubs excluded from the Copa União, the CBF adopted a new set of rules, which considered the Copa União part of a larger tournament, comprising other 16 smaller teams. According to that new set of rules, the Copa União would be dubbed the Green Module of the CBF championship, whereas the other 16 teams would play the Yellow Module. In the end, the first two teams of each Module would play each other to define the national champions and the two teams that would represent Brazil in the Copa Libertadores in 1988. However, that new set of rules was never recognized by the Club of the 13 and largely ignored by most of the Brazilian media, who concentrated their attention in the independent league, eventually won by Flamengo. CBF, however, acknowledges Sport, winner of the Yellow Module as that year's national