Earlier and with fewer dates, the Campeonato Paulista starts this weekend at a pre-season pace for the main clubs in the state. Corinthians, Palmeiras, São Paulo and Santos enter the field less than a week after resuming activities, which forces coaches to adopt different strategies to avoid high physical exhaustion at the beginning of the season.
At the head of a more robust squad, Abel Ferreira can opt for a rotation of athletes at Palmeiras. With fewer options available, Dorival Júnior turned to Corinthians’ base to reinforce the team amid several absences due to physical problems. Crespo, still waiting for reinforcements, saw São Paulo’s medical department empty and will be able to rotate the squad at the start of the state championship.
At Santos, after renewing Neymar and signing Gabigol, the board is still in the market looking for reinforcements for the starting team.
The reduction of dates in the state also forced the FPF (São Paulo Football Federation) to adopt a new format for the dispute. The event will have a similar model to the Champions League. With 12 dates — before there were 16, starting on January 15 —, the teams will face each other within their own group and will have five more rounds against opponents from outside the group, totaling eight in the first phase, including the state classics.
The maintenance of duels involving, above all, Corinthians, Palmeiras, Santos and São Paulo was the federation’s biggest concern to minimize the impact of reducing dates on the exposure of its commercial partners.
The eight best teams from the initial phase advance to the knockout stages, which will feature single-game knockouts, with the exception of the final, which is defined in two matches, on the 4th and 8th of March. In this edition, the two worst teams in the group stage fall to Series A2.
“It doesn’t seem sensible to me”, summarized Abel Ferreira, coach of Palmeiras, regarding the organization of the tournament, with less pre-season time. His squad had only five days of preparation before the debut against Portuguesa, on Saturday (10), at 8:30 pm, in Canindé.
The Alviverde team played its last game in 2025 on December 7th, against Ceará, for the Brazilian Championship. Less than a month later, on the 4th, the athletes returned to the club. During the break, just before Christmas, everyone started doing activities remotely under the supervision of the technical committee.
Despite Abel’s complaint, the president of Palmeiras, Leila Pereira, was one of the main defenders of the new calendar. “The CBF took a very important step so that we can have, in the near future, an even better calendar, which fully respects the integrity of the athletes”, said the director.
The transition period, however, will require an effort from the clubs. Corinthians, for example, was the last of the state’s big teams to close their 2025 season. On December 21, they won the Copa do Brasil cup at Maracanã by beating Vasco.
The black and white team’s athletes had just two weeks of rest before the start of the pre-season. Current champions of São Paulo, Corinthians debuts on Sunday (11), at 4pm, against Ponte Preta, in Itaquera.
For the first commitment, coach Dorival Júnior was forced to promote players from the base amid the series of casualties in his squad. He, for example, will not be able to count on his famous attacking trio formed by Rodrigo Garro, Memphis Depay and Yuri Alberto. The Argentine underwent wrist surgery and the Dutchman is recovering from bone edema in his left knee.
Released by Corinthians to travel to Italy to obtain his Italian citizenship, Yuri Alberto missed a few days of training and will therefore be spared from his debut at Paulista.
The goal of the black and white technical committee is to have its main players available on February 1st, when Corinthians faces Flamengo, in Brasília, in the Brazilian Super Cup.
Before that, in addition to the disputes for Paulista, the club debuts in the Brazilian Championship on January 28, against Bahia, at home. The national championship also started earlier by the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation) as part of changes to the calendar — the event will be played throughout the year, until December 2nd, with a break for the World Cup between June 11th and July 19th.
The Copa do Brasil, in turn, will have a single game final, with the competition starting on February 18th and the decision on December 6th. Serie A clubs enter the tournament from a new fifth phase, which debuts in this edition, the last before the round of 16.
Although the president of the CBF, Samir Xaud, said that the changes aim to reduce the game load of elite teams, they also impacted the clubs’ pre-season schedule — as in the case of teams from São Paulo.
