When tragedy struck, Barça — and Barça only — was there.
That’s the message that was made public by the President of the Brazilian football club Chapecoense, which lost 22 players and dozens of coaching and other staff members when a charter flight carrying the team to the 2016 Copa Sudamericana Finals crashed after running out of fuel while making its final approach to José María Córdova International Airport in Medellín.
“Barcelona was the only one there for us from the very first moment,” Plínio David de Nes, the current President of Chapecoense, told Fox Sports. “They gave us money to use at our discretion, and they invited us to play in the Joan Gamper Trophy in August, for which the proceeds will be divided.”
The Italian club, AS Roma, also invited Chapecoense to play a match, which the Brazilian club was unable to accept due to a lack of open dates. Barça, however, was the only European club to offer money, he said.
