Agent behind tragic £15m footballer’s transfer deal hits out amid looming legal action

Thursday 21 February 2019

The agent behind footballer Emiliano Sala’s tragic £15million move to Cardiff FC has accused the team’s management of trying to “throw [him] under the bus” as they look to take legal action in the wake of the Argentine striker’s death in the plane crash off the coast of Alderney.

Willie McKay made the comments to the Telegraph recently an interim report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) into exactly what happened to the aircraft is yet to be released but expected next week.

It is unclear at this stage what content will be included in the report, but it was revealed this week that Cardiff FC may try and make a claim against whoever booked the flight, if investigations find that Mr Ibbotson did not have the correct pilot’s licence.

Anyone without a commercial licence is unable, by law, to offer flights for "hire or reward".

Pictured: Pilot David Ibbotson, whose body has not been recovered.

The team - known as the Bluebirds - have already said they would be withholding Sala’s transfer fee, despite a demand for payment from Nantes.

They have reportedly written to the French squad saying there are 10 questions that need to be  answered before any money is handed over.

According to The Sun, they range from, ‘Who arranged the flight, and why did that person put him on a single-engine plane at night in difficult conditions, without adequate emergency apparatus?’ and queries about the plane’s ownership to ‘What was transfer broker Willie McKay’s cut?’ and, ‘Was McKay’s commission, or part of the transfer fee, due to be split between other parties involved in the deal and, if so, to who?’ 

At present, no legal proceedings have begun against Mr McKay; but he remains under close scrutiny by Cardiff, having initially angered the team after admitting planting “misleading” stories about Sala in the media. 

To arouse interest in the player, Mr McKay said he had suggested other teams including Everton and West Ham United were considering a purchase.

Pictured: Mr McKay told the media there was interest in Sala from other football teams, later admitting these were "misleading".

The row has since become embittered, with Mr McKay, who has admitted arranging the flight, protesting that his “conscience is clear” and that the suggestion of any wrongdoing on his part made him “livid”. 

He told the Telegraph that Vincent Tan (owner of Cardiff FC), Mehmet Dalman (Chairman) and Ken Choo (Chief Executive) had shown “no class at all” and suggested that there were efforts to “throw me under the bus”. 

He showed the newspaper the contract with Nantes FC, which showed his agent son, Mark, was due 10% of the transfer fee (around £1.5million), and that the latter was obligated to do everything he could to ensure the club receive their money “as soon as possible”

Addressing the crash, Mr McKay said that he had fully cooperated with the AAIB’s investigations and provided a timeline of the events leading up to that point, and a list of the private jet trips taken by Sala. 

He denied organising the specific plane or pilot, adding that he did not know whether Mr Ibbotson held a commercial pilot’s licence. He simply said that he asked another pilot to arrange the journey from Nantes to Cardiff. He had previously ruled out having asked for any payment from Sala, having released text messages between Sala and his son, Jack.

Pictured: Texts between Willie McKay's son, Jack, and Emiliano Sala prior to the flight.

Mr McKay further claimed that Cardiff were aware of the flights taken by Sala throughout the process, adding: “The only flight everybody is talking about is the one that crashed, right? Cardiff knew everything [about every flight]. When are they going to come out and tell the truth?” 

He later added: “I met Emiliano the same amount of times as they [Cardiff officials] met him. I organised his flight. I tried to help him. They never tried to help him.

“They booked him one room at the St David’s Hotel [in Cardiff]. That’s all they’ve done for him. And they’re trying to throw me under the bus.”

The circumstances of the flight’s fatal end remain unclear, as does the location of the body of Dave Ibbotson.

Yesterday, his daughter said that crowdfunding efforts had raised enough money to be able to fund a deep dive and further helicopter search for him, which will be led by ‘shipwreck hunter’ David Mearns - the man commissioned by the Sala family find the plane wreck.

Video: A recreation of the Piper Malibu plane's flight from Nantes to Cardiff. (Grimsby Live)

Ahead of the release of an interim report into what happened, a flight simulation has aimed to shed some light on the conditions facing the pilot on the night the plane went off-radar.

Commissioned by Grimsby Live, Mr Ibbotson’s home’s regional paper, the footage was formed through detailed analysis of the weather conditions that night and input from aviation experts.

They suggested that the temperatures that night may have caused ice to form on the wings of the plane, leading it to struggle. 

One commercial pilot described ice as a "real potential issue here", explaining: “The ice builds up and disrupts the flow of air over the wings which provides the lift which allows the plane to fly. You then need more and more power to maintain that flow of air. Then your power runs out. At that point your plane stops being a plane. Your wings just stop doing what they are supposed to do which is keep the aircraft in the sky.”

Mr Ibbotson is known to have requested to descend as he flew over the Channel Islands, which experts say may have been an attempt to reach warmer temperatures.

The AAIB have said their interim report is not yet ready, but that they will release a publication date on Friday.

Pictured top: Sala as he announced his record signing with Cardiff, and a tweet (inset) by the footballer excitedly announcing the move.