Chapecoense

The state championship in Santa Catarina has long belonged to the coastal sides, and Chapecoense arrived from the other end of it — the far west, closer to Argentina than to the capital. Seven state titles have followed since the first in 1977, the most recent in 2020.

The club came out of a merger. Two Chapecó sides, Atlético Chapecoense and Independente, folded into one on 10 May 1973, and the green and white of the new club has not changed since. Arena Condá holds 19,351.

What the wider football world knows about Chapecoense dates from 28 November 2016. The squad was flying to Colombia for the first leg of the Copa Sudamericana final when the aircraft came down short of Medellín. Seventy-one people died, among them the club president and the head coach. Three players survived, including the defender Alan Ruschel, who later returned to the pitch, and the goalkeeper Jackson Follmann. The trophy was awarded to Chapecoense.

Rebuilding took the form it had to take: a squad assembled almost from nothing, then years of holding a place in Brazil's top flight. The 2020 Série B title brought them back up, and the state championship the same season went with it.