Sala plane changed hands four times in a single day

NANTES expect a preliminary report into the crash which killed Emiliano Sala to confirm this week that agent Willie McKay did not own the plane, strengthening their demands that Cardiff City make the first payment due for the player.

The Mail on Sunday understands that enquiries about ownership have centred on a mysterious firm called Cool Flourish, listed at Companies House as a management consultancy business.

The company’s major shareholder, 45-year-old Fay Keely, is listed by the companies register as resident at a property at Alfreton, Derbyshire, which is deserted and unfurnished.

Our attempts to ask another director, Heather Keely, 41, about the business also drew a blank. A woman who arrived at the door of her listed address, in Repton, Nottinghamshire, slammed it shut and refused to answer questions. A note requesting clarification went unanswered. A mansion listed as the home of an older former director Terence Keely is also empty. We were told that we were trespassing and must leave the premises by ground staff there.

Evidence that McKay part-owned the plane or was linked to a commercial entity that did — which he denies — could be used by Cardiff to negotiate Nantes down. Cardiff would argue that McKay was a representative of the French club, who therefore carry some liability.

A complex paper trail has made ownership of the Piper Malibu aircraft difficult to ascertain. It is registered with the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), who allow ownership details to be kept out of the public domain. Documents seen by

Sportsmail show that it changed hands four times in a single day in 2015.

McKay is also ready to demonstrate that Cardiff were so pleased to have him working for them in the transfer window that he did groundwork on two other possible deals for manager Neil Warnock. He says Warnock had an interest in midfielder Bouna Sarr and striker Konstantinos Mitroglou, both at Marseille.