Report from The Times on the Sala case

By Matt Lawton - The Times


It is nearly seven years since Emiliano Sala was killed in a plane crash but it is only now, on a day when Cardiff City sent their lawyers into a courtroom in France, that the full, murky details are emerging of a football transfer that ended in such tragedy.

In a case heard at the Commercial Court of Nantes on Monday, Cardiff are pursuing damages of more than £100million from FC Nantes by presenting evidence they say reveals the extent to which the £15million transfer of the 28-year-old Argentinian striker was conducted by unlicensed intermediaries both here in the UK and in France.

The Welsh club, which in January 2019 had completed a deal to sign Sala in the hope he could score the goals that would keep them in the Premier League, argue that Nantes are responsible for the player’s death because they enlisted the services of a banned agent, Willie McKay, to broker the deal and it was the 66-year-old Scotsman who then involved David Henderson, who was convicted for arranging a flight that was illegal due to a lack of proper certification and the use of an unqualified pilot. The small aircraft carrying Sala from Nantes to south Wales crashed into the sea. The body of David Ibbotson, the pilot, has never been recovered.

Nantes have consistently denied McKay’s involvement, first at the Court of Arbitration for Sport and now in this case in France, a judgment from which will come on March 30. Instead they stress that they mandated his son, Mark McKay, to conduct the transfer on their behalf, and focus on one of the key findings in the inquest: that the cause of Sala’s death was, in part, a carbon monoxide leak in the plane.

They also reject Cardiff’s principal argument for the sheer size of their claim, which is €120.2million (about £105million) in economic loss after their relegation to the Championship that season, and a further €2million for reputational damage plus legal costs. Nantes are arguing that there was no guarantee that Sala would have secured their place in the Premier League.

Nantes are also making a counterclaim, accusing Cardiff of abusing their right to go to court and “judicial harassment”.

But Cardiff’s case is built on the evidence secured last year in a separate out-of-court settlement with Willie McKay, which enabled them to obtain previously undisclosed documents that reveal email communication between him, the owners of Nantes and the unlicensed French agents, Bakari Sanogo and Baba Drame. There is a separate criminal investigation in France focused on the use of Sanogo by Nantes, and Cardiff have disclosed correspondence that shows Franck Kita, the son of Nantes president Waldemar Kita, updating both Willie McKay and Sanogo on the status of Sala’s move.

Cardiff claim that, while a mandate was indeed given to Mark McKay to find a buyer for Sala, the French club in fact used his father, who at the time had lost his agent’s licence because of bankruptcy.

Today Willie McKay is once again listed on the FA website as a licensed agent. He told The Times on Friday that he was not acting as an agent in the Sala transfer. “I was working with my son,” he said. “I was helping my son.”

Fifa rules strictly prohibit clubs and players from using the services of an unlicensed agent. Indeed, in France it is a criminal offence. Yet correspondence secured by Cardiff and presented in their case seems to show Willie McKay playing a central role in the transfer when he was banned from performing any agency services.

On November 15, Willie McKay emailed the West Ham chairman, David Sullivan, saying he was in Paris with the owner of Nantes, Waldermar Kita, explaining that he had “put Emiliano Sala (Nantes) into Mario… we have the mandate from Nantes”.

On the same day Willie McKay also forwarded an email he had sent to Sullivan, regarding Sala, to a French agent he has said he works with, Baba Drame.

On the day Mark McKay received the mandate from Nantes to sell Sala, Willie McKay told Cardiff: “We have an exclusive mandate from Nantes.” McKay Sr also confirmed that he had “asked for the mandate from Nantes for Sala” personally.

Evidence shows that Willie McKay made direct contact with a number of other Premier League clubs, Liverpool, Chelsea, West Ham and Everton among them. In an email to Kita, the Nantes president, on November 29, Mark McKay states that it was the plan for his father — and possibly the unlicensed Sanogo — to be present at a meeting in Nantes to discuss the Sala transfer to Cardiff.

Cardiff’s case states that the delivery of the signed mandate from Nantes to Mark McKay was sent via email through a chain that included two unlicensed agents, one of whom was Willie Mckay.

On November 21, 2018 it was first transmitted by Nantes’ legal manager, Samuele Lanoë, to Sanogo, who in turn sent it to Dramé, who then sent it to Willie McKay. He then forwarded it to his son, Mark.

Cardiff claim Mark McKay was nothing more than a front man for his father, pointing to other evidence. Mercato Sports was a company set up in 2017, at a time when Willie McKay was banned from being an agent and a director of a company. Janis McKay, Willie’s wife, and Mark McKay were named as directors and it was under Mercato’s umbrella that Mark conducted the Sala transfer. The company, however, was dissolved in 2023 — the same year Willie McKay’s ban as both an agent and a director ended — and Mark McKay did not retain his registration as an agent beyond 2024.

At 9.16 on 26 November 2018, Willie McKay texted Neil Warnock, then the Cardiff City manager, to say: “If you want get Sala don’t fanny about Burnley owner wants me to come to match tonight!” This email was not included in Cardiff’s case in the French court but it is in possession of the club and further illustrates McKay Sr’s involvement. Burnley later said they had no interest in Sala.

At 18.59 on the same day, Mark McKay emailed Warnock to say: “Just to make you aware, I have the full mandate for Emiliano Sala. If you have any further interest, I would prefer to send him to Cardiff rather than anywhere else, especially after the way my brothers [his younger brothers were registered as players with the Cardiff academy] been treated by all the staff down there. Compared to who else is out there, I think he’s the player who can make a big difference for you.’”

On December 5, 2018, the McKays flew Warnock and Kevin Blackwell, Cardiff’s assistant manager, to Marseille to watch Sala play.

At 18.53 that day, in what was half-time during the game, Mark McKay sent Warnock an email with an exclusive mandate from West Ham signed by the club chairman, David Sullivan, to buy Sala attached. In the subject line it read: “Private between you and I”. This was another email excluded from Cardiff’s court submission but it also in possession of the Welsh club and further highlights the way a father and son operated in tandem during the transfer.

On January 6, 2019, Willie McKay sent an email to Sala. McKay intimated that any stories in the media reporting possible interest from West Ham, or any other club, had been planted by them simply to create a market, illustrating how agents sometimes use journalists to create a market for a player.

“Cardiff have been told you don’t want to go there,” said McKay Sr. “That’s probably our fault. It was us who put in the media about other clubs wanting you — West Ham, Everton etc, to create an interest in you. That’s what we do. It can be misleading for the player himself, but unless we do this most people would not know you because nobody follows the French League.”

Previously, Fifa, the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the Swiss Federal Court all ruled that Cardiff must pay the £15million transfer fee to Nantes.

The inquest into Sala’s death on January 21, 2019 concluded that he died as a result of injuries he sustained in the crash, while stating that the flight was illegal because the aircraft was not operated in accordance with commercial safety standards and Ibbotson did not have a commercial license, a night rating, or recent experience flying in instrument meteorological conditions. He also was colourblind.

Willie McKay had chartered the plane from an operator, David Henderson, who was not licensed to provide commercial flights.

It was deemed “likely” that the pilot and Sala had been affected by carbon monoxide poisoning from a leak in the heating sleeve of the aircraft, which would have been detected with the proper checks for a commercial flight. However, the investigation also concluded that a loss of control of the aircraft was made more likely because the flight was not conducted with the proper safety standards, particularly because of the pilot’s lack of training.

At Cardiff Crown Court, Henderson was sentenced to 18 months in prison. McKay, though named as the flight’s organiser, was not prosecuted.

In France, Cardiff now continue their fight, in a court that has jurisdiction that extends beyond powers that were available to the bodies in Switzerland.

The club have used financial experts to estimate the overall cost of relegation, and also claim they suffered reputational damage because they initially withheld the transfer fee to Nantes.

More significantly, they are also now armed with new evidence and what they certainly consider a far stronger case. They say Nantes should be held liable because of the extent to which Willie McKay and other unlicensed agents were involved both in the transfer and the ill-fated flight that claimed an under-qualified pilot and a young footballer dreaming only of playing in the English Premier League.

Posted this before reading it so don't know if there's any new information, but worth posting.

Posted this before reading it so don't know if there's any new information, but worth posting.

It seems to contain more up to date information, and clarifies quite a few things already discussed on this Forum, Ned

For me, whilst it is notoriously difficult to pre-judge such a complicated situation, it does appear to confirm the ‘heavy’ involvement of Willie McKay, both through his son, and through the company set up for his wife/other son, whilst he was banned, and which was subsequently ‘dissolved’ when he got his agents license back!

Coincidence that, eh?

The ‘emails’ sent to David Sullivan and others, including Neil Warnock, from Willie McKay, plus his admission of ‘hawking’ the player, appear pretty clear, but I note some of those weren’t submitted into evidence

Paul Keevil would be an interesting commentator at this point!

The Times appear ‘positive’ in their reporting, and mention 30th March 2026 for the final judgement. Not so long now, but it will appear an age!

Posted this before reading it so don't know if there's any new information, but worth posting.

It seems to contain more up to date information, and clarifies quite a few things already discussed on this Forum, Ned

For me, whilst it is notoriously difficult to pre-judge such a complicated situation, it does appear to confirm the ‘heavy’ involvement of Willie McKay, both through his son, and through the company set up for his wife/other son, whilst he was banned, and which was subsequently ‘dissolved’ when he got his agents license back!

Coincidence that, eh?

The ‘emails’ sent to David Sullivan and others, including Neil Warnock, from Willie McKay, plus his admission of ‘hawking’ the player, appear pretty clear, but I note some of those weren’t submitted into evidence

Paul Keevil would be an interesting commentator at this point!

The Times appear ‘positive’ in their reporting, and mention 30th March 2026 for the final judgement. Not so long now, but it will appear an age!

There's definitely a lot of detail in there Chris and very sensitively written by Matt Lawton, who is a journalist that has won awards for his writing.

I was particularly interested by this bit near the end:

"Cardiff are now armed with new evidence and what they feel is a far stronger case."

A French court examining a dispute over footballer Emiliano Sala's death in a plane crash nearly seven years ago is to give its decision in March next year.

A commercial court in Nantes in western France said the decision on the dispute between Cardiff City Football Club and Football Club de Nantes would be made at a hearing on 30 March.

Cardiff City has claimed losses of more than 120m euros (£104m) in relation to Sala's death in January 2019, claiming the striker could have kept the club in the Premier League.

Just days before his death he had been announced as Cardiff's record signing after agreeing a £15m deal to join the then-Premier League side from Nantes.

Next March. oh boy more time waiting to end this sad tradegy.

I wouldn't trust the French to remain impartial, no matter how strong our case, with the massive conflict of interest I think they will try to favour Nantes.

If we win, it will have had to be completely clear-cut.

We need Richard Sharpe on it !

I wouldn't trust the French to remain impartial, no matter how strong our case, with the massive conflict of interest I think they will try to favour Nantes.

If we win, it will have had to be completely clear-cut.

Don't forget it was the French Police that indicted the Nantes' owner and son for using unauthorised agents. One of which was involved in the Sala deal as well as McKay.

The police brought further criminal charges on the back of what was uncovered in the Sala case.

I’ve been pretty consistent on the fact that I think we had a legitimate case and the details spelt out in this article further that.

In fact I’d go as far as saying we’d probably also have a strong case for reputational damage as a result of Nantes’ conduct throughout the entire proceedings.

Thank you that was a well written and interesting read. It had some new facts included. Obviously, we are only guessing, when. cosidering the outcome in March. However, based on this report, one would expect that Cardiff will win considerable damages, but probably nowhere near £100 million.
Such a shame that a football club/s dealt with really dubious characters when arranging the deal, and that led to a young mans death. In law, fatal accidents of this nature are rarely due to one serious error, but rather a ‘domino effect’ where a. number of opportunities to avoid the terrible outcome were missed.