Football club defends itself over fatal fire

BRAZILIAN football club Flamengo has defended its management of the training ground where a fire killed 10 of its academy players at a dormitory that had been registered with the city as a car park.

Rio de Janeiro’s city hall said in a statement that Flamengo was fined 31 times because of infractions at the Ninho do Urubu training ground, which had to be temporarily closed in October 2017.

City hall also said the sleeping quarters where Flamengo’s academy players — all between 14 and 16 years old — died was irregularly licensed as a car park.

“The lodging area hit by the fire is not included in the last project approved by our licensing,” it said. “There are no registers of new licensing requests for that area as a sleeping quarter.”

Three teenagers were still being treated in hospital yesterday.

Flamengo’s chief executive Reinaldo Belotti said the licensing issues “have nothing to do with the accident”.