Nearly four weeks after the LaMia Flight 2933 disaster which claimed the lives of 71 people on board, including 22 players on the Chapecoense football squad, the Brazilian club has been formally awarded the trophy for the 2016 Copa Sudamericana Final.
Their opponents in the final, Atletico Nacional, insisted that they would not play the final and that CONMEBOL should award Chapecoense the trophy. On Thursday, the trophy was awarded to Chapecoense president Plinio David de nes Filho at the CONMEBOL gala for the Copa Libertadores draw.
“I would like to thank everyone, all the nations,” said the club president. “But let me, in a very special way, a very tender and grateful way, on behalf of our club, Chape, to share the trophy we just received with the one who gave us this possibility (Atletico Nacional), thanks to their gesture of humanity and respect, their dignity and their demonstration of kindness.”