2026 Copa do Nordeste

2026 Copa do Nordeste
Tournament details
CountryBrazil
Dates25 March – 7 June
Teams20

The 2026 Copa do Nordeste will be the 23rd edition of the main football tournament featuring teams from the Brazilian Northeast Region. The competition will feature 20 clubs. Bahia and Ceará will have three berths each, while Alagoas, Maranhão, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte, and Sergipe will have two each. The Copa do Nordeste will begin on 25 March and will end on 7 June 2026.[1]

Due to the restructuring of Brazilian tournaments by the CBF, teams participating in the 2026 Copa Libertadores and 2026 Copa Sudamericana would not be allowed to participate in regional tournaments. Therefore, Bahia, the defending champions who qualified for the second stage of the 2026 Copa Libertadores, were excluded from the 2026 Copa do Nordeste, despite winning the 2025 Campeonato Baiano.[2]

Format

In this season, 20 teams (9 state league champions and runners-up and best placed teams in the 2026 CBF ranking from Ceará and Bahia) gained entries into the group stage.

For the group stage, the 20 teams will be drawn into four groups. Each team in Group A will play each team in Group B once, and each team in Group C will play each team in Group D once. The top two teams from each group will advance to the final stage. The quarterfinals will be played on a single-leg basis, while the semifinals and finals will be played on a two-legged, home-and-away basis.[3]

Teams

The qualified teams are[4]

Association Team Qualification method
Alagoas
2 berths 		CRB 2025 Campeonato Alagoano champions
ASA 2025 Campeonato Alagoano runners-up
Bahia
3 berths 		Vitória 2025 Campeonato Baiano runners-up
Jacuipense 2025 Campeonato Baiano third place
Juazeirense best placed team in the 2026 CBF ranking not already qualified
Ceará
3 berths 		Ceará 2025 Campeonato Cearense champions
Fortaleza 2025 Campeonato Cearense runners-up
Ferroviário best placed team in the 2026 CBF ranking not already qualified
Maranhão
2 berths 		Maranhão 2025 Campeonato Maranhense champions
Imperatriz 2025 Campeonato Maranhense runners-up
Paraíba
2 berths 		Sousa 2025 Campeonato Paraibano champions
Botafogo-PB 2025 Campeonato Paraibano runners-up
Pernambuco
2 berths 		Sport 2025 Campeonato Pernambucano champions
Retrô 2025 Campeonato Pernambucano runners-up
Piauí
2 berths 		Piauí 2025 Campeonato Piauiense champions
Fluminense-PI 2025 Campeonato Piauiense runners-up
Rio Grande do Norte
2 berths 		América de Natal 2025 Campeonato Potiguar champions
ABC 2025 Campeonato Potiguar runners-up
Sergipe
2 berths 		Confiança 2025 Campeonato Sergipano champions
Itabaiana 2025 Campeonato Sergipano runners-up

Bahia (2025 Campeonato Baiano champions) did not participate in the 2026 Copa do Nordeste due to their qualification for the second stage of the 2026 Copa Libertadores.

Draw

The group stage draw was held on 3 March 2026, 14:00, at the CBF headquarters in Rio de Janeiro.[5] Teams were seeded into five pots based on the 2026 CBF state ranking (shown in parentheses).

2026 CBF state ranking
State
  • Ceará (6)
  • Bahia (9)
  • Pernambuco (10)
  • Alagoas (11)
  • Rio Grande do Norte (15)
  • Paraíba (16)
  • Maranhão (17)
  • Sergipe (18)
  • Piauí (20)

Teams from Ceará and Bahia with the worst 2026 CBF club ranking were allocated to Pot 5. All the clubs were drawn into four groups of five, with one team from each pot. There was one restriction: teams from the same federation should play each other in the group stage. For example, if a team was drawn in Group A, its rival from the same federation would be drawn in Group B. If the team was drawn in Group C, its rival would be drawn in Group D. The 2026 CBF club ranking is shown in parentheses.

Group stage draw
Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3 Pot 4 Pot 5

Group stage

For the group stage, the 20 teams were drawn into four groups of five teams each. Each team in Group A will play each team in Group B once, and each team in Group C will play each team in Group D once. The clubs drawn to form Groups A and C will play three home games and two away games. The top two teams of each group will advance to the quarter-finals of the knockout stages. The teams will be ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, the following criteria will be used to determine the ranking: 1. Wins; 2. Goal difference; 3. Goals scored; 4. Fewest red cards; 5. Fewest yellow cards; 6. Draw in the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation (Regulations Article 13).[3]

Group A

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 Vitória 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Advance to Quarter-finals
2 ASA 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 Sousa 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 Itabaiana 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
5 Fluminense-PI 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Source: CBF

Group B

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 Juazeirense 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Advance to Quarter-finals
2 CRB 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 Botafogo-PB 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 Confiança 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
5 Piauí 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Source: CBF

Results: Group A vs. Group B

Source:CBF
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Group C

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 Ceará 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Advance to Quarter-finals
2 Sport 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 América de Natal 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 Imperatriz 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
5 Ferroviário 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Source: CBF

Group D

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 Fortaleza 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Advance to Quarter-finals
2 Retrô 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 ABC 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 Maranhão 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
5 Jacuipense 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Source: CBF

Results: Group C vs. Group D

Source:CBF
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Final stages

Starting from the quarter-finals, the teams will play a single-elimination tournament with the following rules:[3]

  • Quarter-finals will be played on a single-leg basis, with the higher-seeded team hosting the leg.
    • If tied, the penalty shoot-out will be used to determine the winners (Regulations Article 21).
  • Semi-finals and Finals will be played on a home-and-away two-legged basis, with the higher-seeded team hosting the second leg.
    • If tied on aggregate, the penalty shoot-out will be used to determine the winners (Regulations Article 21).
  • Extra time will not be played and away goals rule will not be used in final stages.

Starting from the semi-finals, the teams will be seeded according to their performance in the tournament. The teams will be ranked according to overall points. If tied on overall points, the following criteria will be used to determine the ranking: 1. Overall wins; 2. Overall goal difference; 3. Overall goals scored; 4. Fewest red cards in the tournament; 5. Fewest yellow cards in the tournament; 6. Draw in the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation (Regulations Article 19).[3]

Bracket

Quarter-finals Semi-finals Finals
             
Group A winners
Group C runners-up
[†]
[†]
Group D winners
Group B runners-up
[†]
[†]
Group B winners
Group D runners-up
[†]
[†]
Group C winners
Group A runners-up
  1. † Order to be decided.

Quarter-finals

Team 1  Score  Team 2
Group A winners E Group C runners-up
Group B winners F Group D runners-up
Group C winners G Group A runners-up
Group D winners H Group B runners-up

Group E

Group A winners – Group C runners-up

Group F

Group B winners – Group D runners-up

Group G

Group C winners – Group A runners-up

Group H

Group D winners – Group B runners-up

Semi-finals

Team 1  Score  Team 2
Group E winners I[†] Group H winners
Group F winners J[†] Group G winners
  1. † Order to be decided.

Group I

–
–

Group J

–
–

Finals

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Group I winners K[†] Group J winners – –
  1. † Order to be decided.

Group K

–
–

References

  1. ^ "CBF oficializa datas do calendário do Futebol do Brasil profissional masculino de 2026" (in Portuguese). CBF. 4 October 2025.
  2. ^ "Clubes que jogarem Libertadores ou Sul-Americana não disputarão torneios regionais; entenda" (in Portuguese). Globo. 1 October 2025.
  3. ^ a b c d "REC Regulamento Específico da Competição Copa do Nordeste 2026" (PDF) (in Portuguese). CBF.
  4. ^ "Regionais 2026: veja classificados para as Copas do Nordeste, Sul-Sudeste, Norte e Centro-Oeste" (in Portuguese). Globo. 10 December 2025.
  5. ^ "CBF sorteia grupos da Copa do Nordeste 2026" (in Portuguese). CBF. 3 March 2026.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.