There’s still a chance for Portuguesa to appeal, but at the moment it seems like the small club from Sao Paulo is going to be relegated because they used an ineligible player, costing them points. The winners? Fluminense, the highest ranked of the relegated teams, who enjoy being terrible on the pitch but great in the courtrooms.

When big clubs get relegated, you know it’s going to take more than just what happened on the football pitch to send them down. Both Fluminense and Vasco aren’t giving up using bureaucracy to remain in the top flight of the Brazilian football league system, hoping that an illegal use of a player by Portuguesa and a similar case by Flamengo, the country’s most popular club.