CFA Laudo Natel

CFA Laudo Natel is not the ground São Paulo FC plays its league fixtures on — it is the place the club actually builds its team. The full name honours a former club president, and the base sits on land bought and cleared specifically to give the club room: more than 220,000 square metres in Cotia, holding eight full-size pitches, seven of natural grass and one artificial.

The stadium inside the complex carries its own separate name, honouring another former president who oversaw the project's construction, and it opened years after the wider base was already running, with an under-15 side beating Barueri to mark the occasion. With room for 1,500 spectators, it was built for youth and women's football rather than for crowds, and that is exactly how it gets used: Sub-15, Sub-17 and Sub-20 sides play their home matches here, including finals of the state youth championship and rounds of the national youth cup.

In 2023 the ground hosted the finals of the Copa Buh, where São Paulo's junior teams beat Palmeiras and a Guarulhos-based Flamengo side across the age groups. The women's team also trains and plays here, though its main fixtures are more often staged elsewhere. What the base is really known for, beyond any single match, is the pipeline it represents — Cotia has long been treated as the source of the club's academy talent, with the pitches doing the daily work no away stand or television camera ever sees.