Chapecoense: Only Roma and Barcelona have supported us

Date: 17th March 2017 at 11:06pm
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Chapecoense President Plinio David de Nês has voiced his disappointment at the lack of support following the tragic plane crash, which killed the majority of the team, in November.

The Brazilian club were travelling to play the first leg of the Copa Sudamericana final against Atletico Nacional when their plane crashed into a Colombian mountainside, killing 71 of the players, coaching staff, journalists and flight crew aboard.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b4EI-006_E[/youtube]

With only five survivors, it was a tragedy that made international headlines and prompted outpourings of support from the footballing world.

However, de Nês has admitted that few European clubs followed up on this, with only Barcelona and Roma making active attempts to help.

“Only Barcelona helped out from the start,” de Nês told Fox Sports. “They paid our full expenses to play in the Gamper Trophy, with us keeping all the proceeds from the match.

“From Italy, Roma invited us to play a friendly against them, but unfortunately our schedule did not allow it. We will see if we can rearrange it in the future though.”

Despite the tragedy, the Verdão have assembled a squad for the upcoming Brazilian domestic season, and recently recorded a victory in their maiden Copa Libertadores appearance.

 

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