• Majority of team died on their way to play match in Colombia • Brazilian clubs also ask for club to be exempted from relegation

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Brazil’s top-flight football teams offered to loan players to Chapecoense for next season after the small southern club lost almost all their players in a plane crash in Colombia.

Chapecoense fans gather in grief at football club's stadium in Brazil Read more

The teams also asked the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) on Tuesday to give Chapecoense a three-year exemption from relegation – the process through which teams are assigned to a lower classification if they do not perform well.

The Brazilian team were on their way to Medellín to play the Colombian side Atlético Nacional in the final of the Copa Sudamericana, South America’s equivalent of the Europa League, when the plane crashed into a hillside on Monday night.

“It is the minimum gesture of solidarity that is within our reach at this point in time but it is borne of the sincerest desire to reconstruct this institution and that part of Brazilian football that was lost today,” the statement said.

The CBF did not immediately respond to the offer. The final on Wednesday was cancelled and all games scheduled for the upcoming week in Brazil were postponed.