The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) has asked Chapecoense, the team that lost most of its squad in a plane crash, to play the last league match.
Chapecoense was supposed to play against Atletico Mineiro on the weekend in the thirty-eighth and final round of the Brazilian Championship, but it was postponed for a week due to the seven days of mourning decreed by CBF for the Chapecoense tragedy.
The match seemed inconsequential from the beginning as both teams had already secured their respective goals for the next season. Chapecoense was mathematically qualified for the Copa Sudamericana and Belo Horizonte for the Copa Libertadores.
"That match has to take place, it has to be a great celebration," said CBF President Marco Polo del Nero to Interim President of Chapecoense, Ivan Tozzo, as the latter stated in a press conference held today at the Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco.
Among the 71 fatalities registered in the accident, 19 were Chapecoense players, as well as other members of the coaching staff and board, leaving the team practically decimated.
Tozzo, as he said, told Del Nero that the team does not have the eleven players necessary for the match, to which the CBF president replied, "Yes you do. You have the players from the youth categories and those who stayed."
Brazilian clubs have offered players to Chapecoense for the upcoming season.
CBF has promised to respect the decision made by Chapecoense and Atletico Mineiro.