Newspaper headlines: Papers show final images of air crash footballers By John Hand

BBC News Published duration 30 November 2016

They were a group of excited, smiling, talented young men, flying off to achieve their sporting destiny in the biggest match of their lives.

image copyright EPA image caption How the Chapocoense team lined up for their Copa Sudamericana semi-final match just a week ago

After the tragic plane crash in Colombia that claimed the lives most of the Chapecoense team, travelling from Brazil to play in the Copa Sudamericana final, the Daily Telegraph's Paul Hayward is among many writers who draw comparisons with Manchester United's Busby Babes, who died in the Munich air disaster in 1958.

He writes: "Like United, Chapecoense were challenging for honours beyond their own borders.

"The players who survived the accident will acquire hallowed status, as Bobby Charlton and others have.

"At least Chapecoense know where to look for inspiration."

While images of the wreckage fill the front pages of many papers, the Times chooses to accompany its main picture with a smaller selfie showing two of those smiling players posing on board the plane before disaster struck. It reveals that one of the men survived but the other was among the crash's 77 victims.

The Daily Star's front page focuses on an equally personal and tragic story. It pictures goalkeeper Danilo, alongside his wife Leticia, and tells how he was pulled alive from the plane wreckage and called his wife from hospital to tell he loved her, but died minutes later.

image copyright Reuters

Under the headline "Nightmare end for fairytale of the football minnows who inspired Brazil", the Guardian explains how Chapecoense had been labelled the Brazilian equivalent of Leicester City because they were "a team from a small, unfashionable city mixing it with, and succeeding against, the big boys of Brazilian football".

The i points out that their rise up Brazil's divisions has been so rapid that their hometown stadium is too small to host some of the major matches they now play. Writer Pascale Hughes adds: "The club's fame and fortune were rising. Until this terrible tragedy brought devastation."

Four ways to stay healthy

image copyright Thinkstock

Does the daily dose of "vital health advice" stories in the papers give you a headache? Here's today's round-up:

"Don't go to bed angry," warns the Times, pointing to a study showing that, after a night's sleep, negative memories have been consolidated - and are much harder to forget. The flipside of that theory, the scientists suggest, is that people who have had a shocking experience should be deprived of sleep to prevent them succumbing to post-traumatic stress disorder.

* If you must insist on being a man, at least try to live in Rutland. The Daily Mail explains that although women across the UK generally have a higher "healthy life expectancy" than men, there are some places around the country where the reverse is true and men are flourishing into their 70s.

'Dark days' for football in England

Two of Wednesday's front pages bring fresh news in the ongoing revelations about claims of historical sexual abuse in youth football in England, dating back to the 1970s.

The Daily Mirror reports that FA chairman Greg Clarke has vowed to punish any clubs found to have covered up any claims in the past, amid reports that some young victims were paid "hush money" to keep quiet about their ordeals.

image copyright Getty Images image caption FA chairman Greg Clarke says he would find it "repugnant" if it is proved that any abuse claims were suppressed by clubs in the past

The paper calls it the "Biggest crisis in the history of the FA" and an editorial adds: "These are dark days for our national game and those who try to hide the truth make it darker still."

Meanwhile, in the Guardian, former Newcastle player Derek Bell is the latest ex-footballer to publicly reveal he was a victim and tells how he was abused while at a boys club in the 1970s, before he became a professional.

His time as a professional player at Newcastle was cut short by injury but years later, in the late 1990s, he discovered that his abuser had become involved in youth coaching at Newcastle so he reported the original incidents to police.

The paper reports that the man Mr Bell accused of abuse was subsequently convicted and sentenced to six years in prison. And it points out that the charges related only to assaults carried out at the boys' club and not at Newcastle.

Gogglebox for your great, great grandkids

image caption Basil Brush will be saved for future generations, whether they want him or not. Boom! Boom!

"We need Mr & Mrs in 200 years" - a bold claim in a Guardian headline that may puzzle the many historians who will study this paper review blog two centuries from now.

The paper's arts correspondent Mark Brown is among many writers on the national papers excited by a new mass digitisation project announced by the British Film Institute to ensure an eternal digital existence for about 100,000 programmes currently held on obsolete video formats, which are rapidly degrading.

The Daily Telegraph's Hannah Furness gets as dramatic as a 1970s potboiler drama as she depicts the £500m project as a "race-against-time mission" to save such shows as Basil Brush, Tiswas, The Adventures of Twizzle and Vision On.

The i's Adam Sherwin focuses on the enticing prospect that the shows "will be made available for free on viewing booths" at nine locations around the UK.

Any Times readers who have undergone their own digital spring clean at home, throwing out once-valued VHS tapes, may have empathy with BFI creative director Heather Stewart, who tells the paper: "We have a warehouse filled with videos and tapes, and after digitisation we will be able to fit it all in a wardrobe."

So is Cheryl pregnant? The papers decide for us all...

image copyright PA image caption One or none of these top pop stars is pregnant - the papers are keen to keep you updated

It could be a format for Simon Cowell's next TV show. Pop star and former X Factor judge Cheryl is choosing not to publicly reveal whether she and singer boyfriend Liam Payne are expecting a baby, so a panel of judges from the newspapers are deciding - based on a picture of her attending a carol concert. Their verdicts are in:

Daily Star - "Chez keeps mum" as "she wore her coat with her pronounced tummy bulge on full view".