Força Chapecoense.

A club with incredible promise, an inspiring story, tragically cut down just before reaching a summit they never would’ve believed was acheiveable just a year ago.

Some background on the club, Associação Chapecoense de Futebol, a club very few outside of Brazil had heard of, were founded in just 1973. Chapecoense are based in the town of Chapeco in the State of Santa Catarina in the south of Brazil, a town with a population of just over 200,000. They had only reached Brazil’s top division, Serie A, in 2014, a fine achievement in a country dominated by prominent sides like Corinthians and Santos.

For a comparison to another clubs recent rise to fame, they have been dubbed the “Brazilian Leicester,” after charting this unprecendented progression to Serie A:
2009: Serie D
2012: Serie C
2013: Serie B
2014: Serie A
2016: Copa Sudamericana Final

The Copa Sudamericana Final, could be labelled the “Europa League Final” of South America. It was a massive acheivement for them to get anywhere close to that game, and it was that game that they were flying to when their plane crashed just 22 miles short of their destination of Medellin, Colombia.

There will come a time when investigations, discussions, and all manner of media fan-fare will come into play in the wake of this tragedy. But now is not the time for that. Now, all we can do is send our love, our support and our prayers to all of the families who are so severly affected by this.

As a Manchester United supporter, this of course brings up my knowledge of the Munich Air disaster that saw 23 members of the club perish. I can only hope and pray that Associação Chapecoense de Futebol receive the same financial and personnel support that United, and all of the affected families, received to help a tragedy-stricken club and city get back on it’s feet and fight on to honor all of those they have lost, when they’re ready.