‘ VERY IMPORTANT CCFC & CARDIFF CITY FANS TOMORROW ‘

By Annis Abraham

Cardiff City will hold a minute’s silence ahead of tomorrow’s kick-off at home to Brighton as a mark of respect and unity with @ChapecoenseReal

Cardiff City supporters are planning a 71st minute tribute in memory of those lost. Great gesture.
The Devastating Story of ‘ The ill-fated Chapecoense Real football team ‘

Chapecoense Real, A Team That Defied All Odds Even As Their Story Ended In Tragedy this week.
The ill-fated Chapecoense Real football team were about to complete a fairytale ending, but fate had other plans.

It was a story from unknowns to being would-be South American champions.

The LAMIA charter plane went down near Medellin late Monday with 81 people aboard and so far only six are reported to have survived. At least two were said by officials to be football players.

For the Chapecoense Real team the disaster means the cruel end of a story that had been meant to climax with an unexpected chance for glory on Wednesday against Colombia’s Atletico Nacional in the first leg of the Copa Sudamericana final.
“The pain is terrible. Just as we had made it, I will not say to the top, but to have national prominence, a tragedy like this happens. It is very difficult, a very great tragedy,” club vice-president Ivan Tozzo told SporTV.

Only a few years ago Chapecoense was just another gritty outfit in the Brazilian lower leagues, where players, unable to afford cars, took the bus to training. The stadium in Chapeco, a city of 2,00,000 people in the southern Santa Catarina state, didn’t have a gym.