Agent booked flight for Sala but ‘didn’t pick plane or pilot’

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.

McKay’s son, Mark, was the acting agent for Nantes in a move which made 28-year-old Sala a club-record 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 failed to arrive at Cardiff as planned on Monday.

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 the Monaco-based Scot 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 support their calls for the search to continue.’

In the messages, Sala asks how much the flights will cost. He is told by Jack McKay that they will cost him nothing.

‘He (Willie McKay) said if you help me to score goals it’s nothing,’ Jack McKay wrote in a message on Friday, January 18.

Sala was pleased with the arrangements and contacted Jack McKay last Sunday to ask if he could bring his luggage on the plane, and was told that he could.

Argentina’s president Mauricio Macri has told his foreign minister to issue formal requests to Britain and France for search efforts to be resumed.

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 amongst the donors.

Cardiff’s staff and supporters, meanwhile, will wear yellow daffodils at Arsenal on Tuesday in respect of Sala, and both captains will place floral tributes at the ground.