For the fifth consecutive year, Vitória will not be in the semifinals of the Bahia Championship. Leão only drew with Barcelona de Ilhéus, in Barradão, and was eliminated in the first phase of the competition, finishing in sixth place.
However, this year, the embarrassment brought a new consequence: Vitória could be out of the next edition of the Copa do Brasil. To get a place in the national competition, Rubro-Negro will need to be champion of the Copa do Nordeste or Série B. Another path for the Bahian team is to win the Copa do Brasil itself in 2023.
That is, to compete in the 2024 Copa do Brasil, Vitória needs one of the three titles in 2023:
- Northeast Cup
- Brazilian Serie B
- Brazil’s Cup
Change in regulation
In previous years, Vitória’s poor performance in the Campeonato Baiano had not interfered with the club’s participation in the Copa do Brasil because one of the criteria for the national competition was the ranking of clubs. However, that has changed to 2024.
For the next edition of the Copa do Brasil, the CBF will use the ranking of the federations to define the vacancies that each one will be entitled to distribute in their state competitions. Bahia will be represented by three clubs: the three best placed in the 2023 Bahia Championship.
For all federations entitled to three vacancies, which is the case of the FBF, the first two must be obligatorily allocated to the champion and runner-up of each state. The third is at the discretion of each entity, which can grant it in a selective tournament. But that was not the choice of the Bahiana Federation, which defined the Bahia Championship as the path to the three spots in the national knockout.
Bahia, Jacuipense, Itabuna and Juazeirense were classified for the semifinals of Bahia. Teams will continue to add points in the knockout stages to define the ranking order. Only the top three will compete in the Copa do Brasil in 2024.