1979 Campeonato Paulista

The 1979 Campeonato Paulista da Divisão Especial de Futebol Profissional^[1] was the 78th season of São Paulo's top professional football league. América's Luís Fernando was the top scorer with 27 goals. Corinthians won the championship by the 17th time. Velo Clube was relegated.^[2]

Campeonato Paulista – Série A1

Season	1979
Champions	Corinthians
Relegated	Velo Clube
Copa Brasil	Corinthians Ponte Preta Palmeiras Guarani Santos São Paulo Portuguesa
Taça de Prata	América Inter de Limeira Noroeste XV de Piracicaba Botafogo Ferroviária Juventus Comercial
Matches played	416
Goals scored	815 (1.96 per match)
Top goalscorer	Luís Fernando (América) – 27 goals
Biggest home win	Corinthians 5-0 Juventus (July 28, 1979) Noroeste 5-0 Inter de Limeira (July 29, 1979) Guarani 5-0 Santos (August 1, 1979)
Biggest away win	Inter de Limeira 0-4 América (July 18, 1979) XV de Piracicaba 0-4 Guarani (October 7, 1979)
Highest scoring	América 5-2 Comercial (September 5, 1979)
← 1978 1980 →

Championship

The twenty teams of the championship were divided into four groups of five teams, with each team playing twice against all other teams, and the three best teams of each group passing to the Second phase, and the team with the fewest points out of all the twenty being relegated, while the team with the second-fewest points would dispute a playoff against the runner-up of the Second level. ^[2][1]

In the second phase, the twelve remaining teams would be divided into two groups of six, each team playing once against the teams of its own group and the two best teams of each group qualifying to the Semifinals.

First phase

Série A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Corinthians	38	15	17	6	48	28	+20	47	Qualified
2	América	39	16	16	7	40	26	+14	48
3	Botafogo	38	13	14	11	32	32	0	40
4	Francana	38	9	16	13	31	42	−11	34
5	São Bento	38	10	12	16	36	46	−10	32

Updated to match(es) played on November 4, 1979. Source: RSSSF.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) wins; 3) goal difference; 4) number of goals scored.

Série B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Guarani	38	18	11	9	55	26	+29	47	Qualified
2	Santos	38	15	14	9	48	37	+11	44
3	Portuguesa	38	11	18	9	43	35	+8	40
4	Inter de Limeira	38	12	15	11	36	46	−10	39
5	Comercial	38	13	12	13	35	38	−3	38

Updated to match(es) played on November 4, 1979. Source: RSSSF.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) wins; 3) goal difference; 4) number of goals scored.

Série C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	São Paulo	38	15	13	10	42	33	+9	43	Qualified
2	Ponte Preta	38	10	19	9	32	27	+5	39
3	Ferroviária	38	10	17	11	27	33	−6	37
4	XV de Piracicaba	38	12	8	18	32	48	−16	32
5	Velo Clube	38	5	11	22	22	52	−30	21	Relegated

Updated to match(es) played on November 4, 1979. Source: RSSSF.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) wins; 3) goal difference; 4) number of goals scored.

Série D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Palmeiras	38	20	12	6	60	30	+30	52	Qualified
2	Juventus	38	13	9	16	33	43	−10	35
3	Noroeste	38	7	21	10	29	30	−1	35
4	XV de Jaú	38	7	17	14	33	45	−12	31
5	Marília	38	7	14	17	25	42	−17	28	Relegation Playoff

Updated to match(es) played on November 4, 1979. Source: RSSSF.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) wins; 3) goal difference; 4) number of goals scored.

Relegation Playoffs

Team 1	Series	Team 2	Game 1	Game 2	Game 3
Marília	4–2	Santo André	2–0	1–2	4–1

Second phase

Group 1

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Ponte Preta	5	4	0	1	7	2	+5	8	Qualified
2	Corinthians	5	3	1	1	5	2	+3	7
3	Ferroviária	5	2	3	0	6	4	+2	7
4	São Paulo	5	1	2	2	4	5	−1	4
5	América	5	1	0	4	3	7	−4	2
6	Botafogo	5	0	2	3	1	6	−5	2

Updated to match(es) played on November 22, 1979. Source: RSSSF.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) wins; 3) goal difference; 4) number of goals scored.

Group 2

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Palmeiras	5	4	1	0	13	2	+11	9	Qualified
2	Guarani	5	2	1	2	5	5	0	5
3	Juventus	5	1	3	1	5	5	0	5
4	Santos	5	1	2	2	7	8	−1	4
5	Portuguesa	5	1	2	2	7	12	−5	4
6	Noroeste	5	1	1	3	3	8	−5	3

Updated to match(es) played on November 22, 1979. Source: RSSSF.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) wins; 3) goal difference; 4) number of goals scored.

Semifinals

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Corinthians	2–1	Palmeiras	1–1	1–0
Ponte Preta	3–1	Guarani	2–1	1–0

Finals

Team 1	Series	Team 2	Game 1	Game 2	Game 3
Corinthians	3–0	Ponte Preta	1–0	0–0	2-0