Call to declare Chapecoense champions after air tragedy

BOGOTA — Colombian club side Atletico Nacional has asked for the Copa Sudamericanna trophy to be awarded to Chapecoense, following the air crash that killed nearly all of the Brazilian club’s players and coaches, while Brazilian first division teams, in a show of unity, have volunteered to lend Chapecoense players for the 2017 season.

Nacional said in a statement on its website and Twitter account that it had requested that Conmebbol, the organisation in charge of South American soccer, to cancel the two-leg finals of South America’s second-most prestigious club competition, scheduled to be held this week, and declare Chapecoense the champions.

“Atletico Nacional calls on Conmebbol to award the title of the Copa Sudamericana to Chapecoense for its huge loss, and in posthumous homage to the victims killed in the accident,” the team said in a statement. “As far as we are concerned, Chapecoense will forever be the champions of the Sudamericana Cup 2016.”

While Conmebbol has suspended the game, and acknowledged that the request had been made after the “unanimous agreement” of Nacional’s players, it has yet to announce how the title would be settled. However, a source close to Conmebbol told AFP it was “very unlikely” that the final would ever be played.

On Monday, Chapecoense was flying to Medellin, Colombia, for the first leg of the finals when its chartered plane crashed on the outskirts of the city, killing nearly everyone on board.

The plane was carrying 77 people, and Colombia’s civilian aviation authority said that six people had survived the crash: Three of the 22 players, two of the nine crew members and one of the 21 journalists accompanying the team.

Authorities named the three players who survived as defenders Helio Neto and Alan Ruschel and goalkeeper Jakson Follmann. However, Chapecoense’s lead goalkeeper Marcos Danilo Padilha, 31, whose last-minute save in the semi-final had ensured the team made it through to the Copa Sudamericana final, died on the way to hospital.

A Colombian military source has since told AFP that the plane may have run out of fuel.

“It is very suspicious that despite the impact there was no explosion. That reinforces the theory of the lack of fuel,” the source said on Tuesday.

SHOW OF SOLIDARITY

Meanwhile in Brazil, the teams in the country’s first division also released a “statement of solidarity” with Chapecoense, volunteering to lend it players for the 2017 season.

The teams also said they had issued a “formal request” to the Brazilian football federation (CBF) that “Chapecoense not be subjected to relegation” for the next three years.

“It is the minimum gesture of solidarity that is within our reach at this point in time but it is borne of the sincerest desire to reconstruct this institution and that part of Brazilian football that was lost today,” the statement said. “But it is endowed with the sincere objective of reconstruction of this institution that Brazilian football has lost.”

The CBF has yet to respond to the offer but Brazilian football officials have ordered all games in the country cancelled for a seven-day mourning period beginning on Tuesday to mourn the minor regional club whose rise to the country’s top division had led it to be described as the Cinderella of Brazilian soccer.

UPSTART IN BRAZILIAN FOOTBALL

In the world of Brazilian soccer, Chapecoense was an upstart from a humdrum city.

While famed Brazilian teams like Fluminense, Corinthians and Santos, were founded around the start of the 20th century, Chapecoense came to life much later, in 1973.

Chapecoense was playing in Brazil’s fourth tier as recently as 2009. It was also mired in debt, a situation common among Brazilian football teams. But a group of business leaders in Chapecó came together to bail the team out, installing new management.

The turnaround worked to the point where Chapecoense became known for frequently paying their players in advance, in addition to coveted bonuses. Investments in training installations also paid off, with the team’s improving fortunes luring a solid fan base in a national soccer scene marked by dismal stadium attendance in many cities.

Two years ago, Chapecoense finally won promotion to the country’s top flight, and in its debut last year in the Copa Sudamericana tournament, it surprised many by making the quarter-finals.

This year it topped that spectacularly by knocking off rivals from Brazil, Argentina and Colombia — including San Lorenzo of Argentina, the team favoured by Pope Francis — to make the final.

The team accomplished all this without relying on big-name superstars. Its top scorer, Bruno Rangel, was a 34-year-old journeyman with more than a dozen stops on his resume. The team captain, Cléber Santana, 35, had plied his trade all over Brazil and also in Spain. Both were killed, according to an official list of the dead that was confirmed by the team.

Juliano Belletti, a former defender for Barcelona, Chelsea and the Brazilian national team, said the club’s rise through the ranks had “brought joy and hope” to the entire country.

Roberto Panarotto, 44, a professor of media studies in Chapeco, the team’s hometown, said the loss will be felt keenly in the city.

“This is a relatively small city, so everyone knows somebody who was on the plane,” said Panarotto who added that he had lost a childhood friend, a member of the coaching staff, in the crash.

FELT ALL OVER THE WORLD

Chapecoense’s tragedy was also felt all over the world.

Football legends Pele and Maradona as well as current superstars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo led tributes while other teams and leagues offered moments of silence before matches and practice sessions. Teams and players used social media to offer their condolences.

Italian club Torino and English Premier League side Manchester United also posted poignant condolences on Twitter.

Each club’s history includes its own air disaster: Torino’s team was decimated in 1949 when a plane carrying 22 players crashed into a mountain, and Manchester United met with a similar catastrophe in 1958 when 23 people died in a crash in Germany as the club returned from a European Cup game. AGENCIES