Football
ESPN staff 7y

Chapecoense to hold tribute as 71 victims are returned to Brazil

Brazil club Chapecoense have confirmed that they will hold a tribute on Saturday at Arena Conda to honour the 71 victims of Monday's plane crash.

White sheets printed with the logo of Chapocoense lay over row upon row of caskets at a Medellin funeral home on Thursday and the club confirmed that all 71 bodies had been identified and would be flown to Brazil on Friday via three flights.

The club detailed the process of the procession of the bodies to the stadium and said that on Saturday, they will open the stadium to 19,000 fans while the field access will be restricted for the families of the victims for a tribute they estimate will last two hours.

The club stressed that there would be no interviews given.

The father of one of the three surviving players, Helam Marinho Zampier, said that doctors have told the family his son, Neto, will recover to play football again.

"My son is getting better with each day," he wrote on his Facebook page. "He just had surgery on his leg and the doctors have told me that he will play football again. I am grateful for all your prayers and we continue to pray that he can recover enough to be released from the hospital so he can be with us as soon as possible."

The governing body for South American football, CONMEBOL, is poised to award the Copa Sudamericana title to Chapeco, Brazil media giant Globoesporte reported on Thursday citing unnamed sources.

The club, from the small city of Chapeco, were in the middle of an unprecedented season. They joined Brazil's top flight in 2014 for the first time since the 1970s and made it last week to the Copa Sudamericana final after defeating two of Argentina's fiercest teams, San Lorenzo and Independiente, as well as Colombia's Junior.

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