Tragic Brazilian club Chapecoense have been crowned winners of the Copa Sudamericana after their plane crashed while travelling to the final.

The jet carrying the Chapecoense team, along with club officials and journalists, to Medellin for the final against Colombian side Atletico Nacional came down late last Monday, killing 71 people including 19 players.

And the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) has declared them Copa Sudamericana champions 2016.

The gesture comes after Nacional asked CONMEBOL to award the title to Chapecoense in tribute to the victims of the crash.

The governing body also announced it has awarded Nacional the Centennial CONMEBOL Fair Play award, consisting of USD one million (£785,000) .

It said in a statement: "For CONMEBOL there is no greater example of the 'spirit of peace, understanding and fair play' set forth as an objective of our institution than the solidarity, consideration and respect shown by Atletico National towards its brothers from Chapecoense."

Brazil's leading football clubs have also pledged to loan players to Chapecoense for free and asked for them to be safeguarded from relegation from the top flight for the next three seasons.

Former Brazil forward Ronaldinho and ex-Argentina international Juan Roman Riquelme have reportedly offered to play for the club, while another Barcelona old boy, Eidur Gudjohnsen, has offered his services.

"Out of respect I would play for ChapecoenseReal if they have a place for me! If not just to play with 10Ronaldinho again £ForcaChape," the 38-year-old Gudjohnsen, whose last club was FC Pune City, posted on Twitter.

Medellin Plane Crash Show all 17 1 /17 Medellin Plane Crash Medellin Plane Crash Logo of Brazilian football team Chapecoense at the site of the plane crash in a mountainous area outside the Colombian city of Medellin. Plane carrying Brazilian football team Chapecoense crashes in Colombia Rex Medellin Plane Crash Rescue workers carry the body of a survivor of a plane that crashed in La Union, a mountainous area outside Medellin, Colombia AP Medellin Plane Crash Rescue workers carry the body of a man from a plane that crashed outside Medellin, Colombia. The plane was carrying the Brazilian first division soccer club Chapecoense team that was on it's way for a Copa Sudamericana final match against Colombia's Atletico Nacional AP Medellin Plane Crash Medical staff waiting for survivors of the crashed plane carrying the Brazilian football team Chapecoense, at San Juan de Dios La Ceja Hospital, in La Ceja municipality, near Medellin Rex Medellin Plane Crash Medical staff from the San Juan de Dios hospital transfer 27-year-old Brazilian soccer player Alan Ruschel as he arrives to La Ceja in Colombia Rex Medellin Plane Crash 81 people, including the players of the Brazilian soccer club Chapecoense, crashed in a mountainous area outside Medellin as it was approaching the Jose Maria Cordoba airport EPA Medellin Plane Crash Medical staff from the San Juan de Dios hospital transfer Brazilian journalist Rafael Henze as he arrives at La Ceja in Colombia after surviving a plane crash EPA Medellin Plane Crash razil's Chapecoense player Helio Neto is helped by paramedics at the San Juan de Dios clinic in La Ceja. Traveling on the doomed airliner that crashed in Colombia overnight were the players and staff of a Brazilian football club about to complete a fairytale journey from unknowns to would-be South American champions Getty Medellin Plane Crash Rescue workers search at the wreckage site of a chartered airplane that crashed outside Medellin, Colombia AP Medellin Plane Crash A charter plane carrying the Chapocoense Real football team crashed in the mountains in Colombia late Monday, killing as many as 75 people, officials said Getty Medellin Plane Crash Rescuers gesture near the wreckage of the LAMIA airlines charter plane carrying members of the Chapecoense Real football team that crashed in the mountains of Cerro Gordo, municipality of La Union Getty Medellin Plane Crash Supporters of the Chapcoense FC gathering at the club in Chapeco, Brazil EPA Medellin Plane Crash Supporters of the Chapcoense FC gathering at the club in Chapeco, Brazil EPA Medellin Plane Crash People pay tribute to the players of Brazilian team Chapecoense Real who were killed in a plane accident in the Colombian mountains, at the club's Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco Getty Medellin Plane Crash Fans pay tribute to members of the Chapecoense team in front of the club headquarters, in the city of Chapeco Getty Medellin Plane Crash People pay tribute to the players of Brazilian team Chapecoense Real who were killed in a plane accident in the Colombian mountains, at the club's Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco Getty Medellin Plane Crash People pay tribute to the players of Brazilian team Chapecoense Real who were killed in a plane accident in the Colombian mountains, at the club's Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco, in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina Getty

Chapecoense's acting president Ivan Tozzo has stated the club - which came up through the lower divisions after only being founded in 1973 - is determined to build again, but that can only be done with the support of the wider football community.

Just three of the team - defender Alan Luciano Ruschel, reserve goalkeeper Jackson Ragnar Follmann and centre-back Helio Hermito Zampier Neto - were named among only six survivors of the crash.

A minute's silence will be held ahead of all of this week's Champions League and Europa League matches as a mark of respect to those who died.