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Spanish soccer club Barcelona invited Brazilian team Chapecoense to play a match in August 2017 at the Catalan outfits legendary Camp Nou stadium, to honor the 71 people who were killed in a recent plane crash including the majority of the soccer team.
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The members of Chapecoense who didn't travel to Colombia and managed to avoid the tragedy will play during the Joan Gamper Trophy, a traditional match before the Spanish soccer season begins which is played each year at the Camp Nou.
“FC Barcelona want to pay homage to the 71 people that died in the accident and to their families so it is working on making the 2017 edition of the Joan Gamper Trophy a homage on behalf of the world of football to all of them,” read a statement by the club.
“With this invitation to Chapecoense, Barcelona wants to collaborate with the institutional and sporting restructuring of the club to help it recover the competitive level it had,” said the text.
Nineteen players from the Chapecoense team were killed in a plane crash on Nov. 28 including directors, coaching staff and journalists. The Brazilian first division team had taken a flight from Bolivia scheduled to land in Colombia, where they would play a Copa Sudamericana final first leg against Atletico Nacional in Medellin.
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This would have been the first time the small club from Chapeco had ever reached the final of a major South American club competition but they were underdogs against a club vying for a rare double after winning the Copa Libertadores in July.
There were only six survivors including three players, two Bolivian crew members and one Brazilian journalist.
Chapecoense is the 21st biggest club in Brazil in terms of revenue, bringing in 46 million reais (US$13.5 million) in 2015, according to an annual rich list compiled by Brazilian bank Itau BBA.
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