e_Paper 1-12-2016

DT
26
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2016
Sport
People surround a church during a mass in memoriam of the players of Brazilian team Chapecoense killed in a plane crash in the Colombian mountains, in Chapeco, in Santa Catarina on Tuesday
Football mourns Brazilian players killed in air crash
• AFP, Medellín
Emotional tributes were paid yesterday
to the Brazilian football
team Chapecoense Real that was
virtually wiped out in a plane crash
in the Colombian mountains that
killed 71 people.
The charter plane, a British
Aerospace 146, reported electrical
problems just before the crash
as it arrived in Medellin where
Chapecoense were to play in the
Copa Sudamericana final.
But a Colombian military source
said the airliner may have run out
of fuel. “It is very suspicious that
Messi was on
same plane before
• Agencies
Lionel Messu was recently on the
same aircraft which tragically
crashed in Medellin whilst carrying
the Chapecoense football team, according
reports in Catalonia.
The chartered flight was transporting
the players and staff to Colombia
for their Copa Sudamerica
2016 final.
However, an electricity failure
caused it to go down just
outside the airport and the local
rescue teams are still working on
the site. •
despite the impact there was no
explosion. That reinforces the theory
of the lack of fuel,” the source
told AFP.
The weather at the time of the
disaster was bad.
Six people miraculously
survived the crash Monday
night. Three of the survivors
were footballers, but goalkeeper
Jackson Follmann had his right leg
amputated, said the San Vicente
Foundation Hospital outside Medellin.
Two flight crew and a journalist
following Chapecoense for the
game against Medellin also escaped.
Brazil ordered three days of national
mourning for the team.
Fans flocked to the Chapecoense
stadium in Brazil to mourn the
team, who have emerged from nowhere
over the past two years to
take South American football by
storm.
Other Brazilian clubs have offered
them players so they can
carry on competing. Special funds
have also been set up.
Football legends Pele and Maradona
and current superstars Lionel
Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo led
tributes to the Chapecoense team.
Ronaldo joined Real Madrid
teammates in a minute’s silence for
the Brazilian team.
“The pain is terrible. Just as we
had made it, I will not say to the
top, but to have national prominence,
a tragedy like this happens,”
club vice-president Ivan Tozzo told
Globo SporTV.
“It is very difficult, a very great
tragedy.”
Chapecoense were on their way
to play Atletico Nacional of Medellin
in the first leg of the Copa Sudamericana
final.
The two black box recorders
have been found but no immediate
Nacional ask for Chapecoense to be
declared Sudamericana champions
• Agencies
Atletico Nacional have asked that
Chapecoense be awarded the Copa
Sudamericana title after a plane
carrying the Brazilian team crashed
on route to Colombia.
The Chapecoense team were
travelling to play Atletico Nacional
in Medellin, Colombia, in the first
leg of their maiden Copa Sudamericana
final before an electrical failure
caused their plane to crash,
killing 71 out of the 77 passengers
on board.
Chapecoense were scheduled
to play Atletico Nacional yesterday
this week after beating Cerro Porteno
in the semi-finals of the Copa
Sudamericana.
However a source close to the
South American Football Federation
said the match was unlikely
to played after Atletico Nacional
called on the federation to take the
unprecedented move of awarding
the trophy Chapecoense.
The Colombian club confirmed
they had asked CONMEBOL to
award the Copa Sudamericana trophy
to the Brazilian club in an official
statement.
“Pain overwhelms our hearts
and invades our thinking in mourning.
It has been unfortunate hours
in which we have been dismayed
by news that we never wanted to
hear. The accident of our football
brothers, Chapecoense, will mark
us for life and will leave an indelible
mark on Latin-American and
world football,” said a statement. •
Brazilian town
grieves loss
• Reuters, Chapeco
AFP
details were given.
The dead included most of the
team and 20 Brazilian journalists
traveling to cover the match.
Four people did not turn up for
the flight including a journalist and
two politicians.
“It’s one of those things in life.
Only God knows why I ended up
staying behind,” said Luciano Buligon,
the mayor of Chapeco in
southern Brazil.
Crying, Plinio Filho, the head
of the club’s advisory council, recalled
the players telling him they
were off to “chase a dream” as they
left.•
Thousands of grieving fans in green
and white filled the Chapecoense
stadium in remote southern Brazil
on Tuesday, singing their team’s
praises and chanting one by one
the names of players who lost their
lives in a plane crash a day earlier.
“We are champions!” they cried
as club staff and relatives of the deceased
joined hands in a circle at
midfield, part of an impromptu ceremony
that swung between mourning
for the lives lost and pride in the
unlikely feats of their fallen heroes. •