 Qualification rules varied, some federations used the state tournaments as qualification tournaments, others organized exclusive qualification tournaments to the Série C.

Beginning in 2009, the Série C was reduced from 64 teams to 20 and the new Campeonato Brasileiro Série D is the qualifier for Brazilian league football.In its current format the 20 teams are divided into two groups and each team plays all opponents from its own group on a home and away basis.The top four teams in each group qualify for a knock out stage and the four semi-finalists are promoted to the Campeonato Brasileiro Série B.