Botafogo SP

In 2005 Botafogo lost their place among the state's elite for fielding a player who was not properly registered. The punishment sent them down to Série A3, the third tier of the Campeonato Paulista. A year later, under president Luís Pereira, they won that same A3 outright. Locally, the word used for it was resurrection.

The nickname that has stuck longest, though, comes from further afield. In the 1960s and early 1970s Botafogo made repeated trips to Argentina, winning international tournaments there four times between 1962 and 1972, and it was in that period that they were christened Pantera — the Panther, sometimes lengthened to Pantera da Mogiana after the region around Ribeirão Preto. The name has outlasted the tours themselves.

Domestically, the trophy that means the most is more recent: the 2015 Campeonato Brasileiro Série D, a national title from the fourth division. Earlier state championships — Série A2 in 1927 and 1956 — belong to a different, harder-to-picture era of Paulista football.

Home games are played at the Estádio Santa Cruz, known to supporters as Patinhas, with an official capacity of 29,292. The club wears white with a black-and-red trim, the tricolour that gives it its other common nickname, Tricolor.

None of it explains why the club exists in the first place, which is simpler than the rest: on 12 October 1918, in Ribeirão Preto, Botafogo Futebol Clube was founded, and it has been playing under that name in that city ever since.