Agent: I did book Sala flight, but I didn’t pick the plane or pilot
McKay reveals texts with missing striker as family start new search
FOOTBALL agent Willie McKay arranged for the flight to take Emiliano Sala from Nantes to Cardiff but he insists he had no involvement in selecting the plane or pilot.
Guernsey Police have called off the search for Cardiff’s new £15million signing Sala and pilot David Ibbotson after their plane disappeared over the English Channel last Monday evening.
That decision, however, has been condemned by Sala’s family, who are convinced that the player is still alive and are financing their own private search of the area where they fear the plane went down.
They even contacted the Football Association yesterday to ask that Millwall and Everton players did not wear black armbands in the FA Cup tie screened on BBC1 last night. Their request was accepted.
McKay’s son, Mark, was the acting agent for Nantes in a move which made 28-year-old Sala a clubrecord transfer for Cardiff.
His other son, Jack, who plays for Cardiff, exchanged a series of text messages with Sala, suggesting a private flight from Cardiff to Nantes, and then back to South Wales two days later.
McKay senior, who has released those messages to the BBC, said a commercial flight to the French city would have involved going via Amsterdam. Cardiff are due to start an internal inquiry to try to establish events leading up to the flight.
A source at the club, according to the BBC, claimed senior officials only became aware a private flight had been arranged after they were alerted by the club’s player liaison officer that Sala had not arrived at Cardiff as planned on Monday. The club added that they do not have a private jet for players to use.
After signing for Cardiff, Sala returned to Nantes to collect his belongings and say goodbye to team-mates and staff of the Ligue 1 club before heading back to the UK. McKay, who has met with Sala’s family, said Cardiff were also aware of the travel arrangements for the missing player.
‘In regards to the booking of the flight, we contacted David Henderson who has flown us and many of our players all over Europe on countless occasions,’ said McKay in a statement.
‘We had no involvement in selecting a plane or a pilot and wish to make clear we do not own the plane that Emiliano flew on.
‘As the text messages show: Emiliano was not asked for payment for the flight. My sons, Mark, Jack and I and the rest of the McKay family would like to offer our sincere support for the Sala family and sup- port their calls for the search to continue.’
Sala’s family, meanwhile, are refusing to countenance the possibility that the footballer has died and were upset when Arsenal and Manchester United players wore armbands in Friday night’s FA Cup tie. There was also a minute’s applause at The Emirates as a mark of respect.
That prompted the family to contact the FA and ask that Millwall and Everton’s players did not wear armbands at last night’s cup tie, also on the BBC. Sala’s sister, Romina, on a visit to Cardiff, said she is ‘convinced Emiliano and the pilot are alive somewhere in the channel’.
A GoFundMe page to raise funds for the resumption of the search had by last night reached £200,000, with the Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan and Demarai Gray of Leicester among the donors.