The club that suffered the biggest tragedy in modern soccer has seen an outpouring of solidarity.
On Monday, Chapecoense was named champion of the South American Cup, the South American Football Confederation announced. The team lost most of its players in the LaMia Flight 2933 crash on their way to play the final match against Medellin’s Atletico Nacional. More than 70 people died.
The move comes after a letter from rival team Atletico Nacional on Wednesday, November 30, to the confederation requesting it to give the South American cup title to Chapecoense “as a laurel honoring their great loss and as a posthumous homage to the victims of the fatal accident that our sport is still mourning.”
At least four major Brazilian clubs have offered to lend players to Chapecoense free of charge for the entire 2017 season: Palmeiras, Corinthians, Santos and Sao Paulo. In a joint statement, the clubs also requested the Brazilian Football Confederation give Chapecoense immunity of sorts and keep the club in the first division for the next three seasons.
“This gesture of solidarity is the least we can do at the moment,” the statement reads.
Another benevolent gesture came from an insurance company, which volunteered to take on all expenses related to the embalming and transportation of the victims to the Medellin airport.
Fans, family and friends of the fallen soccer heroes gathered at the team’s home stadium in Chapeco on Saturday to pay their respects, and on Sunday many funeral proceedings took place across Brazil.
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