Copa Rio (state cup)

Copa Rio

Founded	1991
Region	Rio de Janeiro
Number of teams	16 (2024)
Current champions	Maricá (1st title)
Most successful club(s)	Volta Redonda (5 titles)

The Copa Rio (English: Rio Cup) is a regional cup competition for football clubs in the Rio de Janeiro state. It is run by the Rio de Janeiro State Football Federation. Volta Redonda has the record for most trophies won.

As of 2025, the competition's rules exclude all national Série A and Série B clubs, with participation optional for clubs in Série C. Copa Rio champions are given a choice between qualifying for the following year's Copa do Brasil or Série D, with the runner-up qualifying for the competition that the winner didn't choose. The competition's participants include 8 Rio de Janeiro State Série A clubs, 8 Série A2 clubs, 4 Série B1 clubs and 4 Série B2 clubs. ^[1]

History

The competition was founded in 1991 by the Rio de Janeiro State Football Federation to decide one of the Rio de Janeiro's Copa do Brasil representatives of the following year (the other being the Campeonato Carioca champion). If the state champion had also won Copa Rio, the representative would have been the tournament runner-up. However, in 1995 the Brazilian Football Confederation established the possibility of a club being invited to dispute Copa do Brasil, and, as a consequence of this, Copa Rio ended up not being interesting for the big teams, so it was discontinued. Flamengo won the first competition with Léo Júnior as captain. It started in April 20 and was concluded on 10 August 1991.

In 1996 and 1997, the competition was replaced by a similar competition disputed only by Rio de Janeiro state countryside clubs, commonly known as Copa do Interior (Portuguese for Countryside Cup). In 1998, there was an attempt to recreate Copa Rio, but without the qualification to Copa do Brasil. This attempt was a failure, and after three years, the competition was discontinued again. During that season only Flamengo and Fluminense participated from the Rio's Big 4, while none of them joined the competition in the following year and only Botafogo in 2000. Thus, the Rio Cup started losing its shine in the decade to follow.

In 2008, the third-placed team (Madureira) was eligible to play in Copa Rio-Espírito Santo. ^[2] In 2005 and in 2007, the competition was held again, but without the participation of the big clubs of the state, and again without qualification to Copa do Brasil.

Champions

Capital and interior winners

The competition was split in two groups with separate finals from 1991 to 1995.

Year	Capital	Interior
1991	Flamengo	Americano
1992	Vasco da Gama	Americano
1993	Flamengo	Americano
1994	Fluminense	Volta Redonda
1995	Botafogo	Volta Redonda

Copa do Rio

Year	Winner	Score	Runner-up
1991 [3]	Flamengo	1–0 3–0	Americano
1992 [4]	Vasco da Gama	2–0 2–1	Fluminense
1993 [5]	Vasco da Gama	2–0 1–0	Flamengo
1994 [6]	Volta Redonda	1–4 1–0 (5–4 p)	Fluminense
1995	Volta Redonda	4–0 0–0	Barra
1998	Fluminense	4–0	São Cristóvão
1999	Volta Redonda	2–0 1–0	Madureira
2000	Portuguesa	4–1	Casimiro de Abreu
2005	Tigres do Brasil	1–0 2–0	Macaé
2007	Volta Redonda	3–1 0–2 (4–2 p)	Cabofriense
2008	Nova Iguaçu	1–0 3–2	Americano
2009	Tigres do Brasil	2–2 2–0	Madureira
2010 [7]	Sendas	1–0 1–2 (4–3 p)	Bangu
2011	Madureira	2–1 3–2	Friburguense
2012 [8]	Nova Iguaçu	0–0 1–0	Bangu
2013	Duque de Caxias	0–1 3–1	Boavista
2014	Resende	0–1 1–0 (3–1 p)	Madureira
2015	Resende	0–0 5–2	Portuguesa
2016	Portuguesa	3–2 3–4 (4–3 p)	Friburguense
2017	Boavista	0–1 1-0 (4–2 p)	Americano
2018	Americano	1–1 1–0	Itaboraí
2019	Bonsucesso	0–0 1–0	Portuguesa
2020	Canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. [9]
2021 [10]	Pérolas Negras	1–1 1–1 (7–6 p)	Maricá
2022	Volta Redonda	3–1 1–1	Portuguesa
2023	Portuguesa	2–2 3–0	Olaria
2024	Maricá	1–0 0–0	Olaria

Titles by club

Club	Titles
Volta Redonda	5
Portuguesa	3
Nova Iguaçu	2
Resende
Tigres do Brasil
Vasco da Gama
Americano	1
Boavista
Bonsucesso
Duque de Caxias
Flamengo
Fluminense
Madureira
Maricá
Pérolas Negras
Sendas

Copa do Interior

List of champions

Year	Champion
1996	Rubro Social
1997	Duquecaxiense

Titles by team

Club	Titles
Duquecaxiense	1 title
Rubro Social	1 title

Records and statistics

Participations of Big Four

Rio's Big Four participated in the early competitions. Their last appearance was in 2000 before the Cup went on hiatus. Botafogo is the only club out of the 4 that never won the competition.

Club	Years	Appearances
Botafogo	1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 2000	6
Flamengo	1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998	6
Fluminense	1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998	6
Vasco da Gama	1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995	5

Topscorers

Year	Player	Club	Goals
2007	Éberson	Portuguesa-RJ	10
2008	Assumpção	Olaria	13
2009	Daniel	Sendas	16
2010	Pipico Rondinelli Tano	Bangu Goytacaz Bangu	8
2011	Wellinton Pimenta	Serra Macaense	8
2012	Derley	Madureira	10
2013	Tiago Amaral	Volta Redonda	8
2014	Gilcimar	America-RJ	8
2015	Douglas Caé Sabão Tiago Amaral	Resende Gonçalense Volta Redonda	6
2016	Lohan	Friburguense	11
2017	Felipe Augusto	Boavista-RJ	5
2018	Cláudio Maradona	Americano	7
2019	Lelê Sorriso	Itaboraí Profute Sampaio Corrêa	7
2021	Di Maria	Americano	6
2022	Jonathan Chula Rhainer	Americano Serra Macaense	6
2023	Guilherme Barrozo Xandinho	Friburguense Olaria	7

Winning managers and captains

Season	Manager	Captain
1991	Vanderlei Luxemburgo	Léo Júnior
1992	Joel Santana	Roberto Dinamite
1993	Alcir Portella	Geovani
1994	Wilton Xavier	Denimar [11]
1995	Wilton Xavier	Denimar [12]
1998	Duílio Júnior
1999	Wilton Xavier
2000	Marcelo Neto
2007	Valter Ferreira
2010	Zé Ricardo	Léo Inácio
2011	Antônio Carlos Roy
2012	Leonardo Condé
2019	Luciano Quadros
2021	Gilmar Estevam
2022	Rogério Corrêa	Luan
2023	Caio Couto

See also

• Campeonato Carioca

References

1. Nascimento Viana, Marcelo Carlos (April 15, 2025). "REGULAMENTO DA COPA RIO DE PROFISSIONAIS 2025" [2025 Copa Rio rules] (in Portuguese). FERJ . Retrieved June 30, 2025.
2. "Nova Iguaçu em festa". Lance! (3871). Rio de Janeiro: Areté Editorial S/A: 12. 2008.
3. Em 1991, Flamengo vence Americano por 3 a 0 - ge.globo.com
4. - CR Vasco da Gama Campeão da Copa Rio de 1992
5. Título pós-Cocada: a história apagada da Copa Rio 1993, vencida pelo Vasco - ge.globo.com
6. HISTÓRIA: OS 25 ANOS DO TÍTULO DO VOLTAÇO NA COPA RIO (1994) - ge.globo.com
7. Final 2010 - ge.globo.com
8. Festa laranja! Nova Iguaçu bate o Bangu e é campeão da Copa Rio 2012 - ge.globo.com
9. "FERJ cancela algumas competições do seu calendário 2020" (in Portuguese). FERJ. March 24, 2020.
10. 2021 Final - cinturaobrasileiro.com
11. Bate bola 1995
12. Protagonista do último acesso do Voltaço na Série C, em 95, Magrão relembra feito: "Um ano mágico"

External links

• Champions at RSSSF
• 2005 Copa Rio at RSSSF ^{[ permanent dead link ]}