Two months after tribute, Chape stops paying agreements with families of the tragedy

Arena Condá received 14 thousand people on November 29 of last year. It was an event in honor of the victims of the Chapecoense plane crash, which turned five years old. Religious and artistic presentations were made. A few weeks later, the club began to default on legal settlements with the families of the dead.

On June 14, 2020, Chapecoense signed a document pledging to settle 26 lawsuits against the club filed by family members of the victims. The association gave as a guarantee of payment its supporter-partner money. The agreement was signed at the execution secretariat of the Regional Labor Court of Santa Catarina.

For the first 12 months, BRL 250,000 per month would be allocated to families. From the 13th to the 24th month, the amount would be R$ 350 thousand. After that, it would go back to R$ 250 thousand. The money would be passed on by Chapecoense itself.

Over time, seven cases had their compensation paid and were closed. There were 17 left. In December 2021, one family did not receive the installment. In January of this year, no one was paid.

“Chapecoense acts as if the widows had destroyed the team with the agreements. What they don’t realize is that it was the opposite. They were the ones who destroyed us. Today, we try to live with the minimum, with the basics “, complains Patrícia Luana Groza da Silva Gimenez, widow of side Gimenez.

He was one of 71 people killed in the LaMia plane crash outside Medellín, Colombia, on November 28, 2016. The flight was taking the Brazilian team to the Copa Sudamericana final against Atlético Nacional. Among the fatal victims, 19 were gamblers.

Five years after the tragedy, families are still trying to receive insurance for the aircraft, issued by Bisa, brokered by Aon and reinsured by Tokio Marine Kiln and 12 other companies. In a lawsuit in Florida, in the United States, the value of the case was set at US$ 844 million (R$ 4.58 billion in current values).

in contact with leaf via email, Chapecoense’s vice president of marketing, Alex Passos, said that no further payments were made because the club is in a very difficult financial situation. Last season, the team was relegated to Serie B of the Brazilian Championship.

“We don’t have resources. We are desperately trying to leave conditions so that the football team that represents the Chapecoense Football Association can play, because our product is football. If there is no football, we will have nothing else and no type of income”, he said. he.

A new board took over on December 14, 2021. According to Passos, the cash forecast for the first three months of 2022 “has a negative difference” of around R$8 million.

“We don’t have the capacity to contract more debts. We received a club completely in debt”, he adds.

In October last year, Chapecoense’s debt was estimated by the then president, Gibson Sbeghen, at R$ 120 million.

The current president, Nei Maidana, contacted widows and regretted the situation. He speculated that Chape could close if no new investors appear. The project to transform the company into a joint-stock company was approved by the deliberative council.

All explanations do not sit well with widows who depend on the settlement in court to support themselves financially.

“Chape that won the affection and admiration of everyone today is very different. [que assume], there is a different way of treating the families involved in the tragedy. Almost two months ago, they were paying tributes in the stadium to the boys who left. Today, once again, we fight for them to comply with an agreement executed in court. And, in many cases, the families gave up some rights to reach these agreements”, said Leticia dos Anjos Gabriel, widow of goalkeeper Danilo.

“I couldn’t watch [à homenagem feita em novembro] ’cause I knew it wasn’t something directly for boys [as vítimas]. It was made to bring the fans back because they fell to Serie B”, adds Patrícia.

For the marketing vice, the problem had been brewing for some time, but previous directors pushed him with the belly.

“The partners’ budget is effectively linked as a ‘guarantee’ for the payment of some agreements. At the moment, this is the scarce resource we have. If we don’t use this resource to put the team on the field and partially pay the collaborators, without whom the gear does not run, the team stops. If the team stops, in the following month why will the member pay [as mensalidades]? So, we won’t even have that feature. See that it is a fine and tenuous tuning”, he says.

According to the agreement signed by Chapecoense in court, a fine of 30% is foreseen on each unpaid installment. Passos informs that a commission was created to study and restructure the debt, which does not sound like a prospect that the funds to the families will be paid again immediately. He states that the will is to pay the families before the other creditors. But at the moment, there is no deadline.

“My husband used to say that there is no team like Chape and that he was very afraid of leaving Chapecoense and not finding a team that was so family, so united. In the end, all this happened. When I close my eyes, the image I have of the president [Nei Maidana] it’s him hugging my husband, holding my daughter in his arms and saying he’s very happy and proud. But, at the first opportunity, what does he do with us? It fails to honor the contracts with the widows”, laments Patricia.