CBF launches process for single Brazilian league from 2030

Brazil’s CBF has started a unification process aimed at creating a single league entity to manage the top two tiers of the men’s national championship, targeting implementation from 2030 when current Série A broadcast agreements expire.The plan is designed to bring clubs currently split across two commercial groupings into one framework that can package and sell the Brasileirão as a more coherent product, while also setting clearer governance and operational standards.CBF president Samir Xaud said: “Today was a historic day for Brazilian football. For the first time, Série A and Série B met with the CBF to discuss a topic that will define our future: the creation of a single league.”The confederation told clubs it sees the Brasileirão as commercially undervalued compared with Europe’s leading leagues, and that improving the product must come before any final settlement on how future revenues are divided.CBF presented a timetable that runs across 2026, with clubs invited to submit proposals and suggestions until the end of July, followed by a review and approval phase in August and September.The final quarter of 2026 is earmarked for structuring work covering both commercialisation and the draft statute of the future league, with CBF indicating it wants a statute in place by the end of the year.CBF’s internal workstream is built around three pillars labelled product, commercialisation and governance, with an intention to complete the “product” phase in 2026 before moving into rights-selling design and the legal-administrative build of the league.The confederation also linked the project to wider reforms it says are already under way, including calendar rationalisation, financial controls and further investment in refereeing and technology.Xaud said the sequence matters, arguing the league concept needs foundations first. “These reforms are not accessories, they are fundamentals. Without them, any league model would be born fragile,” he said.CBF vice-president Gustavo Dias positioned the organisation as a mediator rather than a future owner-operator, while emphasising that clubs will have to compromise if a single structure is to be agreed.He said: “Nothing we want for Brazilian football will be possible without unity. There will be no progress without unity. The league needs to belong to the clubs. The CBF will be present, with an active role as mediator, but decisions need to be built and deliberated by the clubs.”The commercial stakes are high because a unified league could reshape how Brazilian football is packaged for domestic and international media, sponsorship and digital distribution ahead of the next broadcast cycle.CBF has indicated the longer-term process could run into 2027 and early 2028 for key decisions on the league’s final operating model, leaving clubs with a defined window to align on structure before the 2030 reset.