Barcelona Invite Chapecoense for 2017 friendly
By Shola Adebakin
Barcelona have invited Brazilian club Chapecoense to play them in a pre-season friendly next summer as parts of efforts to condone with the nineteen Chapecoense players and staff who were among 71 people killed in a plane crash as the team traveled to Colombia for the Copa Sudamericana’s first leg.
The friendly would be for the Joan Gamper trophy, which is an annual match between Barcelona and an invited team.
In a statement, Barcelona said they wanted to “pay tribute” to the victims and help in the quick recovery of three Chapecoense players who were among six people that survived the crash.
Barcelona said they wanted to make the Joan Gamper trophy “a great tribute to the world of football through various activities around this match”.
“Along with the invitation to Chapecoense to the 2017 Joan Gamper Trophy, Barcelona would like to collaborate on the institutional and sporting reconstruction of the club, and help to recover the competitive level that it had,” they added.
