Sad news for world football

Adding to the Azkal’s disappointing run and eventual exit from the Suzuki Cup is another unfortunate football story.  Except for nine people who missed the flight, the entire team of a Brazilian football club perished in a plane crash in Cerro Gordo, a mountainous village in Colombia.

Brazilian club team Chapecoense Real, based in the City of Chapeco, south of Brazil was on their way to their first Copa Sudamericana football finals.  The tournament is South America’s second biggest next to the Copa Libertadores. Chapecoense used to languish at the bottom half of Brazil’s Serie A but was on a Cinderella run and advanced to the Sudamericana finals on a last minute save by goalkeeper Marcos Danilo Padilha, who perished in the crash.  Team captain Cleber Santana, who played with Manchester United’s David de Gea during their Atletico Madrid days, also died.

As per reports, the chartered plane operated by Bolivia-based LaMia, declared an emergency citing “electrical failure” and crashed a few minutes later just 50 kilometers from the city of Medellin where they were supposed to land.

A recording aired by Colombian radio had pilot Miguel Quiroga telling the control tower, “Ma’m, LaMia 2933 has total failure, total electrical failure, without fuel.”  The pilot repeatedly asked for clearance to land earlier because of “fuel problems” but was put into a holding pattern because another flight reported a suspected fuel leak and was given priority.

The plane was supposed to land and refuel at Bogota but the pilot decided to skip the stop thinking that the fuel would be enough to reach Medellin.  Military sources said that because there was no explosion upon impact, it reinforces the theory that the plane ran out of fuel.

That type of aircraft has a capacity of 21,000 pounds of fuel and burns between 4,000 to 5,000 pounds per hour.  They were flying for 4 hours and 20 minutes and had they refuelled in Bogota, things would have been different.  International aviation regulations requires that planes should have fuel reserves enough for 30 to 45 minutes for them to find alternate landings in cases of emergency.  Obviously, the pilot had a fatal miscalculation.

I just could not imagine what the passengers felt during their final moments, the terror of a violent death a rushing reality.

Colombian football club Atletico Nacional, out of respect and in tribute to those who perished, requested the Confederacion Sudamericana de Futbol (CONMEBOL) “that the Copa Sudamericana title be handed to Chapecoense Football Association as an honorary trophy for its great loss, and a posthumous homage to the victims of the fatal accident that has put our sport in mourning.”

In what would have been their first-leg finals match, Nacional called for a memorial service on game day at their stadium and requested fans to come in white and bring with them candles.Likewise, the Chapecoense stadium, draped in black ribbons, had their memorial service with the remaining players on the field.  Both stadiums were packed with fans.

Some top level Brazilian football clubs have offered to loan their players for free to Chapecoense so it can continue playing competitively for the 2017 season.  Further, they requested their football federation not to relegate the club to the second division for three years as they recover from the tragedy.  Weaker teams are normally assigned to the second division for three years until they are deemed competitive.

In another show of homage, Brazil’s top football club Palmieras had also requested the football federation to wear Chapecoense’s uniform in their final match of the season.  The whole country declared three days of mourning.

CONMEBOL has yet to decide if they will have the tournament go on as planned but it would be wise for the federation to decide on cancelling the match and give in to the request of Nacional to award the title to Chapecoense.  The team is hurting and the opposition would likewise be playing half-heartedly out of respect to what has happened.

Three footballers, two crew members and a journalist miraculously survived the crash but reserve goal keeper Jakson Follman had his right leg amputated.  Among the four who missed the flight was striker Alejandro Martinuccio because of injury and Chapeco mayor Luciano Buligon.  Another player, Matheus Saroli missed the flight because he forgot his passport.  His father Giao Junior, who was the coach of the team were among those killed.

Coach Junior issued a tragically prophetic statement prior to their flight saying, “if I should die today, I would be happy”, in reference to their club’s rise from Brazil’s bottom-tier Serie D seven years ago to the elite Serie A and their first time entry to a continental tournament.

Exactly the same aircraft was used by the Argentine national team two weeks ago to fly to San Juan, Argentina for a World Cup qualifying match.  On that flight was football superstar Leo Messi.

Coming from oblivion, Chapecoense’s golden run ended in tragedy.