(*) The CBF was unable to organise an official tournament so the Clube dos Treze decided to organise their own (Copa Joao Havelange), which also awarded the first two berths in the 2001 Copa Libertadores and is considered the oficial first division tournament for that year.

(*) The legitimate ownership of the 1987 Brazilian football title remains the object of much controversy to this day. Flamengo and Internacional refused to participate in a playoff between the first two clubs in the Copa Uniao or Green Module (Flamengo and Internacional) and the co-champions of the Yellow Module (Sport Recife and Guarani). The first of these was a tournament organized by the Clube dos Treze (the 13 "big" clubs), who had invited 3 other clubs, while the second was organized by the CBF between 16 of the clubs left out. It functioned effectively as a second level league from which clubs were promoted to the first national division in 1988 (which included all clubs from the Green Module). After the afore-mentioned refusal by Flamengo and Internacional, CBF declared Sport Recife and Guarani to be the champion and runner-up, respectively, and inscribed them for the Copa Libertadores. But the National Sports Council (then the competent judicial body to settle the issue), ruled in favour of Flamengo and most of the media at that time did not give much credit to Sport's claim to the title and have ever since considered Flamengo the Brazilian champion of that year.