American Football
Brazil's American Football Superliga D1 and Brasil Bowl
Brazilian American football achieved unity in 2025 by merging its top leagues into the Superliga D1, establishing a new national championship featuring a.
Brazilian American football spent six years split between two rival national championships. In February 2025, the Confederação Brasileira de Futebol Americano and the Associação de Clubes de Futebol Americano signed an agreement to merge the Brasileirão and Liga BFA into a single competition. The result is the Superliga D1, the first unified top tier since 2019.
How the Superliga D1 works
The league runs on a regional conference system, a design for a country where Curitiba and Manaus sit 2,700 kilometres apart. The Superliga D1 divides into four conferences: Centro-Norte, Nordeste, Sudeste, and Sul. Teams play within their conference during the regular season, which typically opens in the second half of the year. The best teams from each conference advance to national semi-finals, with the two winners meeting in the Brasil Bowl.
Below the D1 sits the Superliga D2, a second division with promotion and relegation between the two tiers. This structure gives smaller clubs a defined path upward and forces established teams to defend their status.
The 2026 conference finals delivered lopsided results in two regions and tighter contests in the others. Rondonópolis Hawks dominated Manaus FA 47-0 to take Centro-Norte. Cavalaria 2 de Julho beat Recife Mariners 46-29 in Nordeste. Locomotiva FA won Sudeste over Vasco Almirantes. Timbó Rex defended Sul by defeating Coritiba Crocodiles. The national semi-finals ran on 21 and 22 November 2026, with the Brasil Bowl expected mid-December.
Recent Brasil Bowl champions
| Year | Champion | Score | Runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Coritiba Crocodiles | 28-22 | Recife Mariners |
| 2024 | Recife Mariners | not played | not played |
| 2023 | Galo FA | not played | not played |
| 2022 | Timbó Rex | 30-20 | Galo FA |
| 2019 | João Pessoa Espectros | not played | not played |
The 2025 final marked a decisive moment for the league’s most successful club. Coritiba Crocodiles hosted Recife Mariners at Estádio Couto Pereira on 6 December 2025, drawing over 6,000 spectators to a downtown Curitiba venue normally reserved for the city’s football club. The Crocodiles’ 28-22 victory gave them a fourth national title, their first since September 2024, when a road accident killed three of their players.
Five clubs to follow
Coritiba Crocodiles operate from Curitiba, Paraná. Their four national championships make them the most decorated program in the unified era. The 2025 title came eleven months after the team suffered losses that would have ended most clubs. They play home games at venues across the city, with Estádio Couto Pereira reserved for the biggest fixtures.
Recife Mariners claimed the 2024 title and reached the 2025 final before falling to Coritiba. Based in Recife, Pernambuco, they represent the strongest program in Brazil’s Northeast. Their 2026 season ended with a conference final loss to Cavalaria 2 de Julho, suggesting the Nordeste region is becoming more competitive.
Galo FA won in 2023 and lost the 2022 final 30-20 to Timbó Rex. The Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais club carries the colours and some of the institutional support of Clube Atlético Mineiro, one of Brazil’s largest football clubs. That connection gives them resources and visibility most American football programs in Brazil cannot match.
Timbó Rex took the 2022 championship with that 30-20 win over Galo FA. The club comes from Timbó, a municipality of roughly 22,000 people in Santa Catarina, making them the smallest city to produce a national champion. They defended their Sul conference title in 2026 by eliminating Coritiba Crocodiles.
João Pessoa Espectros won the last unified championship before the 2019-2025 split, taking the 2019 Brasil Bowl. The Paraíba club has not returned to the final since, but their title remains the most recent for the Northeast region before Recife Mariners’ 2024 win.
How to watch a game in person
The Superliga D1 season runs from roughly July or August through November, with playoffs and the Brasil Bowl in late November and December. Ticket prices stay low by comparison with professional football or major concerts, generally running from R$ 20 to R$ 60 depending on the venue and fixture. The 2025 final charged more for reserved seating at Estádio Couto Pereira, but most regular-season games operate at smaller stadiums with cheaper entry.
Each club manages its own ticketing. Check the official Instagram accounts, Facebook pages, or websites of the team you want to see. Many clubs sell at the gate on match day, though playoff games increasingly move to online pre-sale. Arrive early: Brazilian American football crowds skew young and enthusiastic. The pre-game atmosphere at established programs like Coritiba or Recife often involves music, food vendors, and the organised chants that Brazilian sporting culture produces regardless of the sport on the field.
For the 2026 Brasil Bowl, scheduled mid-December, monitor the CBFA’s official channels and the social media of the two semi-final winners. The host city rotates based on bids from qualified venues, with seating capacity and broadcast infrastructure as deciding factors.
