BBC Wales programme about Emiliano Sala Mondat evening...

[jon1959]

The BBC Wales 'report' sounds like a lazy hatchet job - with the months-old quote from Sala's father (a cry of pain and grief) providing all the online headlines from news agencies and papers - most of which cut and paste from each other - but thereby creating a bigger noise.

None of us know the full facts yet, but we probably do know most of them. With the benefit of hindsight it is easy to say Sala himself or the club should have done things differently or asked more questions. In general I think the club has behaved well, although I'm sure there has been some post tragedy rationalisation of events and filling in the timeline with things that were not clear at the time.

Sala signed for the club 'subject to international clearance' and a few other contract caveats. If the club's position is correct Sala had not completed his transfer at the time of the tragedy, and his flight was arranged by the agent (and his disqualified father) who were acting for Nantes, despite Cardiff offering a commercial flight. The direct flight offer from Willie and Mark McKay (passed on by Jack McKay) may have looked more attractive than a commercial flight via Paris, and the changes of planned departure time on the day made it more responsive as well - although a major factor in what happened. Cardiff City had someone lined up to meet Sala on arrival back in Cardiff but otherwise were not hands-on that day after their own flight offer was rejected.

Is that neglect of a human being to whom they had (or would soon have) a duty of care, or neglect of a valuable club (future) asset to be more cold blooded about it? I think the 'Sala was not yet our player' line is something that was not at play on the day of the tragedy - given a few more days all the contract issues would have been tied up. However, I can well understand that the club felt they had acted reasonably in the circumstances, were not responsible for what happened, and will be aggrieved by today's headlines.

Sala's own agent was not involved with the flight arrangements and probably not consulted by anyone.

[goats]

The BBC Wales 'report' sounds like a lazy hatchet job - with the months-old quote from Sala's father (a cry of pain and grief) providing all the online headlines from news agencies and papers - most of which cut and paste from each other - but thereby creating a bigger noise.

None of us know the full facts yet, but we probably do know most of them. With the benefit of hindsight it is easy to say Sala himself or the club should have done things differently or asked more questions. In general I think the club has behaved well, although I'm sure there has been some post tragedy rationalisation of events and filling in the timeline with things that were not clear at the time.

Sala signed for the club 'subject to international clearance' and a few other contract caveats. If the club's position is correct Sala had not completed his transfer at the time of the tragedy, and his flight was arranged by the agent (and his disqualified father) who were acting for Nantes, despite Cardiff offering a commercial flight. The direct flight offer from Willie and Mark McKay (passed on by Jack McKay) may have looked more attractive than a commercial flight via Paris, and the changes of planned departure time on the day made it more responsive as well - although a major factor in what happened. Cardiff City had someone lined up to meet Sala on arrival back in Cardiff but otherwise were not hands-on that day after their own flight offer was rejected.

Is that neglect of a human being to whom they had (or would soon have) a duty of care, or neglect of a valuable club (future) asset to be more cold blooded about it? I think the 'Sala was not yet our player' line is something that was not at play on the day of the tragedy - given a few more days all the contract issues would have been tied up. However, I can well understand that the club felt they had acted reasonably in the circumstances, were not responsible for what happened, and will be aggrieved by today's headlines.

Sala's own agent was not involved with the flight arrangements and probably not consulted by anyone.

Why wasn’t he though? Seems so un professional when dealing with huge sums of cash

[Since62]

Why wasn’t he though? Seems so un professional when dealing with huge sums of cash

Maybe because the deal was "hijacked" by Willie McKay acting through his son`s company?

Maybe because Willie McKay was acting for Nantes FC even though that club knew/should have known that he was not allowed to do so under UEFA rules? Could they possibly have been persuaded to do so on the basis that they were promised a higher transfer fee than they might otherwise have got?