The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) has asked Chapecoense, the team that lost almost all of its squad in an airplane accident, to play the last league match.
Chapecoense was supposed to play against Atletico Mineiro 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 the CBF for the Chapecoense tragedy. Both teams had already secured their respective goals for the next season: the Chapecoense team was mathematically qualified for the Copa Sudamericana and the Belo Horizonte team for the Copa Libertadores.
"That match has to be played, it has to be a great celebration," said CBF President Marco Polo del Nero to Chapecoense's interim president, Ivan Tozzo, as stated by the latter in a press conference held today at the Arena Conda stadium, in Chapecó. Of the 71 deaths registered in the accident, 19 were Chapecoense players, as well as other members of the coaching staff and the board, leaving the team virtually decimated.
Tozzo replied to Del Nero that the team did not have the eleven players necessary to play the match, to which the president of CBF responded: "Yes, you do. You have the players from the youth categories and those who stayed." Brazilian clubs have offered players to Chapecoense for the next season. Despite the request, the CBF has committed to respecting the decision made by Chapecoense and Atletico Mineiro. EFE
