Campeonato Gaúcho

The Campeonato Gaúcho (English: Gaúcho Championship), officially named as Campeonato Gaúcho de Futebol Série A and commonly known as the Gauchão or the Gauchão Ipiranga for sponsorship reasons, is the state football league of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. It has been contested since its founding in 1919, being an amateur competition until 1940 when the league became professional. Twelve teams contest in the Campeonato Gaúcho, typically from January to April, for the state championship title.

The rivalry of two of the better-known Brazilian teams (Grêmio and Internacional) have a significant impact in the history of the tournament. Since 1940, the Grenal duo did not win the title on just four occasions: the defunct Renner was champion in 1954, Juventude almost 44 years later in 1998, Caxias, in 2000, under Tite's command, and Novo Hamburgo in 2017. Internacional is the biggest winner of the competition, with 45 titles, followed by Grêmio with 42 titles and Guarany of Bagé with two titles.

Format
The Campeonato Gaúcho is held by the Federação Gaúcha de Futebol (Rio Grande do Sul Football Federation) in the beginning of the year from January until April. Throughout its history, the Gauchão had various formats of competition, with almost regular changes to the format of the competition. Currently, the competition has a single group of 12 teams with a single round-robin system: where each team plays against the other only once. The eight best ranked clubs advance to the knockout phase, formed by a single-game quarter-finals, the semifinals, and the finals, which both are decided in a home-and-away series.

In addition to the main title, there is the Campeonato do Interior Gaúcho (English: Gaúcho Interior Championship), created as a prize for the best team outside the Grenal duo, the usual winners of the competition. According to the formula adopted from 2012, the award is given to the best ranked team in the championship, as long as it is not Grêmio or Internacional and has not played in the final of the competition. Despite the name, the prize doesn't need to be necessarily given to only teams from the interior of Rio Grande do Sul, but also from the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre or even Porto Alegre itself.

Qualification for competitions
The best placed of league qualify for the next year's Campeonato Brasileiro Série D, excluding the teams having already qualified for the Série A, Série B, Série C or Série D by other means. The worst placed are relegated to the Campeonato Gaúcho Série A2.

The winner of the Campeonato Gaúcho faces the winner of the state cup Copa FGF at the super cup Recopa Gaúcha.

Clubs
2023 First Division

Titles by team
Teams in bold still active.

Most appearances
Below is the list of clubs that have more appearances in the Campeonato Gaúcho.


 * SER Caxias includes the participations of "Associação Caxias de Futebol" (1972–1975), when GE Flamengo and EC Juventude were merged.