Plane Carrying Brazilian Soccer Team Crashes In Colombia

It identified the six survivors as players Alan Ruschel, Jackson Follmann and Hélio Neto; journalist Rafael Valmorbida; Bolivian flight attendant Ximena Suarez; and Bolivian flight technician Erwin Tumiri. Chapecoense is widely regarded as one of the minnows of Brazilian club football, having been founded relatively recently in 1973 in the city of Chapeco in southern Santa Catarina state.

A chartered aircraft carrying a Brazilian soccer team to Colombia for a regional tournament final has crashed on its way to Medellin’s global airport, officials said Tuesday.

The clubs also called on the Brazilian Football Confederation not to relegate Chapecoense to the second division during the next three years, to allow it time to rebuild, regardless of the results.

The CBF did not immediately respond to the offer.

Victory in the final of the Copa Sudamericana would have been the greatest triumph in Chapecoense’s history and allowed the team to compete in next season’s Copa Libertadores, the most prestigious club competition on the continent.

For the Chapecoense Real team the disaster means the cruel end of a story that had been meant to climax with an unexpected chance for glory on Wednesday against Colombia’s Atletico Nacional in the first leg of the Copa Sudamericana final.

October 13, 1972: Eleven players on Uruguay’s Old Christians Club rugby team died when their plane crashed into the Andes.

Only a few years ago Chapecoense was just another a gritty outfit in the Brazilian lower leagues, where players, unable to afford cars, took the bus to training.

“I didn’t board because I forgot my passport”, he said.

A sea of fans filled the streets outside a cathedral downtown for an evening mass before streaming down the road to the stadium.

Distraught fans gathered around the team’s Conda stadium in Chapeco, a town of about 200,000 people in south Brazil. “I feel profound sadness…”

A huge outpouring of solidarity from the footballing world followed.

The airliner also appeared to have transported the national squads of Brazil, Bolivia and Venezuela in the last three months, according to a log of recent activity provided by Flightradar24.com. He last coached Brazilian club Internacional in 2009 and Ceara in 2010. Matheus Saroli, the son of Chapecoense manager Caio Junior – who was killed – revealed that he was due to board the ill-fated flight but forgot his passport.

Brazilian President Michel Temer has decreed three days of national mourning for the victims of the crash. “We are offering all the support we can to families and providing all the assistance possible”.

“This is a very, very sad day for football”, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said in a statement. “At this hard time our thoughts are with the victims, their families and friends”. One of them, Mario Sergio, was a well-known announcer and former Brazilian global football player.

News of the crash sent shock waves around the football world, with FIFA president Gianni Infantino offering his condolences as did three-time World Cup victor Pele, while current Brazil global Neymar, the Barcelona forward, said the news was “impossible to believe”.

“Now it’s time to take care of the families”, he said.