CHAPECOENSE have lost everything. The plane crash in Colombia on November 29th that killed, among others, 19 players from the Brazilian football team now overshadows everything that came before it (see blog). The side’s spectacular ascent from the fourth division to the first is forgotten; so too its unlikely run to the final of this season’s Copa Sudamericana, a continental club tournament. The tragedy that struck this modest club has touched players and fans far beyond Brazil. The minutes of silence solemnly observed in stadiums around the world would add up to days. And many football fans have surely pondered the uncomfortable truth that this could conceivably happen to their own team.

posted 2682 days ago