Corinthians and Palmeiras begin to define this Sunday (16), at 6.30 pm, at Allianz Parque, the champion of São Paulo 2025. In addition to the historical value, the winner will pocket $ 5 million awards, the largest among all state in the country, and is higher than most South America’s national leagues.
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Only the champions of Ecuador, Uruguay and, of course, Brazil receive higher figures. And here the disparity of Brazilian football in relation to its neighbors begins to become evident.
Brazilian champion in 2024, 29 years after its last national title, Botafogo received R $ 48.1 million for the winning of the events. The value is almost seven times higher than that pocketed by LDU, Ecuadorian champion last season. The Quito Club received US $ 1.2 million (R $ 6.9 million) for its 13th National Trophy.
Third League with the largest prize on the continent, the Uruguayan Championship allocated US $ 750,000 (R $ 5.8 million) to Peñarol, which added the 52nd cup to its gallery.
No other national champion in South America had an awards of over R $ 5 million in 2024. Argentina, for example, had the lowest reward in the region, with only US $ 500,000 (R $ 2.9 million) paid to Vélez Sarsfield for its 11th Argentine title, lower than Serie B of the Brazilian Championship, which yielded R $ 3.5 million to Santos access with the first position last year.
The growing disparity in recent years has led Conmebol (South American Football Confederation) to create a plan in 2022 to strengthen local competitions of its ten associations. Each member receives $ 1 million annually (R $ 5.8 million) to distribute as awards.
Each country could choose between two options to divide the value -integrally for the champion or with a percentage also intended for the deputy.
Even without reducing the difference to Brazil, which was also entitled to money, the amount distributed by Conmebol helped reinforce the awards of neighboring countries – in some cases until doubled what was being paid so far.
This, however, has not been enough to balance the disputes in the main competition of the continent, the Copa Libertadores. Since 2017, only once the champion was not a Brazilian club. This occurred in 2018, when River Plate beat Boca Juniors in the final.
In addition to winning seven of the last eight editions, Brazil had 11 finalists in total, with four editions being defined only by teams in the country.
The recent hegemony helped Brazilians lean against Argentina in the ranking of the biggest tournament champions with 24 trophies, one less than rivals.
The financial power of the teams is pointed out as one of the main responsible for the success of Brazilian teams.
Even without winning the trophy, disputing Libertadores is much more profitable for South American neighbors than the award of their domestic leagues.
With two wins in the group stage, a club earns more than the current Argentine champion. Each of the triumphs guarantee $ 300,000, equivalent to $ 3.4 million.
Conmebol can offer these values thanks to its sponsorship contracts and, above all, sale of broadcasting rights.
In this second aspect, the Paulista Championship also stands out. In addition to its final awards being larger than most of the leagues in South America, only for participating in the tournament, the four largest clubs in the state, Corinthians, Palmeiras, Sao Paulo and Santos, pocketed R $ 44 million. Much of the value comes from television quotas.
Thus, the 2025 champion will pocket a total of R $ 49 million, which makes the state the fifth competition of the continent with the highest awards, considering all levels – state, national and continental.
Only Libertadores (R $ 221.9 million), the Brazilian Cup (R $ 99.3 million), the South American Cup (R $ 58.8 million) and the Brazilian Championship (R $ 48.1 million) yield more than the amount to be pocketed by Corinthians or Palmeiras at the end of the Paulista Championship.
