Botafogo PB

The paper trail runs back to a newsroom strike. In 1931, journalists at the João Pessoa daily A União, off the job in a labour dispute, formed a football club to fill the idle days — Bota-Fogo Futebol Clube, the name then written with a hyphen, founded on 28 September that year.

Black, white and red, with a red star on the crest, gave the club two of its nicknames — Belo and Alvinegro da Estrela Vermelha — and a claim no rival in Paraíba can match: 31 state championships, the last of them in 2026, when Nenê helped end a seven-year wait for the title. No other club in the state has won more.

Beyond Paraíba, the record is thinner. Botafogo's only national honour came in the 2013 Série D, and its best Série C run stopped at the quarter-finals the following year. The story fans still reach for predates both: the 1980 Série A season.

The oldest of its rivalries is with Auto Esporte, the Botauto derby dating to a first meeting in 1938; matches against Campinense and Treze carry their own weight in the city's football calendar. Home games are played at the Almeidão, officially the Estádio José Américo de Almeida Filho, whose capacity was cut from just under 26,000 to 20,000 in 2024 after fire-safety upgrades.

In February 2025, the club split its football operations from the historic association, selling 90% of the new company, Botafogo-PB SAF, to Belo Futebol Holding.