Even after a tragedy such as the one Chapecoense has endured this week, some of Brazil's footballing execs haven't developed a bit of common sense.
Reports coming in from Brazil suggest that Marco Polo del Nero, president of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), has tried to force Chapecoense to play the final game of the Brasileirao against Atlético Mineiro. According to CBF's exec, the game should be considered "a grand celebration" and there should be no reason for it not to be played.
Chapecoense's president Ivan Tozzo was baffled by this request.
"I spoke to Mr. Del Nero about the game against Atlético Mineiro, and he told me that the game is still scheduled to be played. I replied that we don't have 11 players, but he said we still have our academy players and footballers who stayed behind. He went as far to tell me that this city and the team deserve to watch that game taking place," Tozzo stated in a press conference.
But if CBF's president lacked common sense, Chapecoense's opponents had some. Atlético Mineiro's president, Daniel Nepomuceno, stepped up and stated that his team will forfeit the match in favour of Chapecoense, regardless of the consequences.
"I just came here to inform the CBF that we won't play that game. It's the least we can do to respect the pain this team is going through. The Confederation has been informed about it. We believe that, as sportsmen, we have to respect this moment. We don't care about losing three points," Nepomuceno added.
Details on the fatal crash revealed
A string of human mistakes caused Chapecoense's flight to crash, but it also had an element of chance involved, as the team's aircraft wasn't allowed to land due to another flight requesting an emergency landing.
Pilot Miguel Quiroga requested directions to land the out-of-fuel plane, and as the radio operator tried to provide the information, the plane went into radio darkness, according to an Avianca co-pilot called Juan Sebastián Upegui.
Early investigations have revealed that the electric failure that caused the plane's crash was linked to lack of fuel, but the airplane's black box will reveal further details.
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