After 19 members killed in plane crash, Chapecoense soccer team declared South American cup champion

Brazil's Chapecoense players.
(Image credit: NELSON ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images)

On Monday, the Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense was named the winner of the South American cup, after many of its players were killed in a plane crash last week. The Chapecoense team was en route to its final match against Medellin's Atletico Nacional team when the plane went down Monday, killing more than 70 people, including 19 of the Brazilian team's players.

The South American Football Confederation's announcement Monday followed a letter sent by Atletico Nacional on Nov. 30 requesting the rival team be named champion "as a laurel honoring their great loss and as a posthumous homage to the victims of the fatal accident that our sport is still mourning."

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