Opponent Wants Soccer Team Killed in Crash Made Champion

After Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense lost most of its players in a plane crash Tuesday, the team it was on its way to play for the South American championship has requested Chapecoense be awarded the trophy, the AP reports. According to the Telegraph, Colombia's Atletico Nacional says naming Chapecoense the champions would be "an honorary award for this great loss and in posthumous homage to the victims of the fatal accident." Atletico Nacional concludes its statement: "For our part, and forever, Chapecoense are champions of the 2016 Copa Sudamericana." The South American Football Federation is expected to honor the request.

All but six of the 81 people aboard the flight died in the crash, which is being blamed on an electrical failure. The six survivors have been identified as Chapecoense players Alan Ruschel, Helio Zampier, and Jakson Follmann; journalist Rafael Valmorbida; and crew members Ximena Suarez and Erwin Tumiri. All suffered "severe trauma injuries." Brazilian President Michel Temer has declared three days of official mourning. Chapecoense was on the verge of wrapping up its best season in decades, if not ever. (More plane crash stories.)