Chapecoense

Associação Chapecoense de Futebol, known simply as Chapecoense, is a Brazilian football club based in Chapecó, Santa Catarina, founded on 14 May 1973, from the merger of two amateur clubs. It currently plays in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série B. The team plays its home matches at the Arena Condá stadium, which has a capacity for 22,830 spectators.

Within four years, Chapecoense was proclaimed winner of the 1977 Campeonato Catarinense, which allowed it to enter the Campeonato Brasileiro de Fútbol in 1978 and 1979. However, it was not until the 1990s that it was able to consolidate itself as one of the five big clubs of Santa Catarina, together with its rivals Avaí, Criciúma, Figueirense and Joinville. Throughout its history it has won seven state championships (1977, 1996, 2007, 2011, 2016, 2017 and 2020).

At the Brazilian level, Chapecoense became famous for rising from the fourth division to the first in only five years, coinciding with the restructuring of the Brazilian league system.

In 2015 it made its debut in the Copa Sudamericana, where it reached the quarter-finals and was eliminated by River Plate of Argentina, and the following year, in the same competition, it caused a surprise by reaching the final against the Colombian team Atlético Nacional, who were the reigning Copa Libertadores champions of that same year. However, that final could never be played; the plane carrying the Chapecoense squad to Medellín for the first match suffered an air accident that cost the lives of 71 people, including 19 players and almost all the members of the sporting staff. Following this tragedy, Conmebol awarded it the title, with all the prerogatives and honours, at the request of its rival.