RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- Sao Paulo Football Club beat America-RN 3-0 on Wednesday evening and won its fifth Brazilian League title, four rounds before the end of the competition.

The title is mathematically in the hands of the team named after Brazil's biggest city, which has scored a total of 73 points in the championship so far. The runner-up, team Santos, has 58 points and will not be able to catch up with Sao Paulo.

Since 2003, when the League started to be contested in the double round-robin format, a team has never won the title so many rounds before its end as Sao Paulo did. The squad, led by head coach Muricy Ramalho, was defeated five times in 34 games in the championship.

America-RN currently occupies the last position in the League, and did not represent much of a challenge to the champions, who has been leading the competition since its 17th round and only needed to tie the match to assure the title.

In the 38th minute of the first half, midfielder Hernanes opened the score. Sao Paulo's goalkeeper Rogerio Ceni tried to convert a free kick shootout, his specialty, into a goal, but the ball hit the post in the 44th minute.

In the second half, defender Miranda increased the lead by scoring in the fourth minute. The final 3-0 score was established by midfielder Dagoberto, who used his head to hit the net.

The victory is also expected to generate a controversy. Sao Paulo, now holder of five League titles (1977, 1986, 1991, 2006 and 2007), will dispute with Rio's club Flamengo (1980, 1982, 1983,1987 and 1992) the right over a special trophy awarded by the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) to the first team to win the tournament five times.

However, CBF does not recognize one of Flamengo's five titles (1987), because, that year, the team was the champion of a parallel national league, played by 16 of the country's biggest clubs at the time, and refused to play the "official" Brazilian League.