Football
Sam Marsden, Barcelona correspondent 7y

Chapecoense confirm Barcelona friendly will take place on Aug. 7

Chapecoense have confirmed they will play Barcelona in the Joan Gamper Trophy match at Camp Nou on Aug. 7 in homage to the 71 people who died in an airplane accident in Colombia last November.

Nineteen of Chapecoense's players were among those killed in the crash just outside Medellin as the side travelled to the first of two matches against Atletico Nacional to determine the champion of the Copa Sudamericana.

CONMEBOL, the South America governing body for football, subsequently awarded the Copa Sudamericana title to Chapecoense at the request of Atletico Nacional.

Barca showed their support for the Brazilian side at the time by inviting them to take part in the annual friendly, saying they wanted to help Chapecoense with both their "institutional and sporting reconstruction."

"Barcelona want to pay homage to the 71 people who died in the accident and their families," the Catalan club said in December.

"The club will work so that the Joan Gamper Trophy 2017 provides a huge homage to them from the football world through different initiatives surrounding the game.

"With the invitation of Chapecoense to the Joan Gamper Trophy, Barcelona want to collaborate with the institutional and sporting reconstruction of the club and help them recover the competitive level they had."

Chapecoense president Plinio David de Nes Filho has since said that the Blaugrana were the only club to send financial support to the club since the tragedy.

"Barcelona was the first team that showed solidarity with us, and for now, it's the only team that's helped us financially, sending us €250,000," he confirmed in an interview in March.

Barca will play Chapecoense following a summer tour of the United States, where they will play three International Champions Cup games.

Juventus will be their opponents in New Jersey on July 22, followed by matches against Manchester United in Washington, D.C. on July 26 and Real Madrid in Miami on July 29.

Following the Gamper match against Chapecoense, Barca will then take part in the two-legged Spanish Super Cup against Real Madrid before the start of the new season, although the dates for those matches have not yet been confirmed.

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