A tough read.

[the other bob wilson]

https://www.theguardian.com/football...ames-hard-face

[Maccy Blue]

How utterly shocking. If I was the club I would give the money that we 'owe' Nantes to the find the pilot fund. £15M lost but I am sure anyone would agree it would be money well spent.

On a side note I was at Macc Town V Crewe and there was a minutes applause for Sala, as well as a Macc Town stalwart who died last week - in fact a really decent bloke. Both teams wore a black armband. After 15 mins their No 20 walked over to the touchline and threw his black armband on the floor in front of the Macc fans. This didn't go down too well. A steward picked it up and took it to the Crewe dug-out to be told not to waste their time and get a grip as it wasn't football related. What a dick.

[MacAdder]

Dreadful reading.
A very unfortunate set of circumstances all of which add up to the same thing. Too much money in the game and too many wrong-uns being allowed to trade.

Our beautiful game ceased to be around about the same time Sky and the premiership were allowed in.

Some people in football are morally no better than that idiot on the Southampton terraces.

[stevebrickman]

https://www.theguardian.com/football...ames-hard-face

We're getting some flack from a few angles here, but to my mind, we are well within our rights to withhold payment pending investigation.

Mckay worked for Nantes; He was being paid 10% of the fee to facilitate the transfer. Mckay also organised the flight, and it has been widely speculated on the aviation forums that given the conditions & qualificatios of the pilot - the flight should never have taken place when it did.

Are Nantes not culpable here? An employee of theirs facilitated the flight.

Happy to be challenged here - but thats how i'm seeing things.

[EastbourneBlue]

https://www.theguardian.com/football...ames-hard-face

This is not a problem with a football, it’s a problem with the system...a problem with capitalism.

Everyone seems happy enough to accept that capitalism is the best way to live. Well, this is the other side of it I’m afraid. It’s not perfect.

[JennyWren]

Mckay worked for Nantes; He was being paid 10% of the fee to facilitate the transfer. Mckay also organised the fligh
Are Nantes not culpable here? An employee of theirs facilitated the flight.

Happy to be challenged here - but thats how i'm seeing things.

If the flight arrived safely, do you still think we would be wrong to pay the first installment?

[jon1959]

If the flight arrived safely, do you still think we would be wrong to pay the first installment?

Eh?

I don't know whether Mark McKay was 'an employee' of Nantes when he organised the flights - I suspect not - but it would make a huge difference to the legal and financial relationship between the clubs if he was.

If the flight arrived safely it would not be an issue for anyone. Obviously!

[JennyWren]

Eh?

I don't know whether Mark McKay was 'an employee' of Nantes when he organised the flights - I suspect not - but it would make a huge difference to the legal and financial relationship between the clubs if he was.

If the flight arrived safely it would not be an issue for anyone. Obviously!

So, if the flight arrived safely, we should pay the first installment. Because it didn't, we should withhold it. In both scenarios, we bought the player. Sala was only on that flight because he was our player. I can't see why anyone thinks Nantes should be left out of pocket.

[lardy]

We're getting some flack from a few angles here, but to my mind, we are well within our rights to withhold payment pending investigation.

Mckay worked for Nantes; He was being paid 10% of the fee to facilitate the transfer. Mckay also organised the flight, and it has been widely speculated on the aviation forums that given the conditions & qualificatios of the pilot - the flight should never have taken place when it did.

Are Nantes not culpable here? An employee of theirs facilitated the flight.

Happy to be challenged here - but thats how i'm seeing things.

He may have been getting paid to work on their behalf but he wasn't an employee.

[Des Parrot]

If the reporting is to be believed, out of the first instalment of £5M to Nantes are due to make payments to Bordeaux & 10% (£500k) to McKay's agency.

Whilst I fully believe that City should pay the instalment, I'd have reservations about some of that money finding its way to a 3rd party who City are questioning their involvement.

One things for sure, it's a business matter & needs to be played out in private.

[walinoz]

My feeling is , even before reading the article is that we should pay the first instalment of £5mil when it’s due , we have had a lot of support and love from fans from all over the world , many saying that they hope we stay up, unheard of really for our club and that is because of the way the club and supporters have dealt with the tragedy of what happened , I’m sure that will dwindle if we get involved in the legal wranglings of where we stand regarding payment
Just pay it and whatever become of the insurance claim if any and the legality of the contracts and international clearance as and when Sala signed we obviously need to adhere to

[Harry Monk]

I thought there was an issue over registration - ie SALA hadn't actually been registered with the FAW, and therefore was not a CCFC player.

[JennyWren]

If the reporting is to be believed, out of the first instalment of £5M to Nantes are due to make payments to Bordeaux & 10% (£500k) to McKay's agency.

Whilst I fully believe that City should pay the instalment, I'd have reservations about some of that money finding its way to a 3rd party who City are questioning their involvement.

One things for sure, it's a business matter & needs to be played out in private.

Yes it does. But, where the money goes after we have paid it is not for us to morally debate over. He was our player, and the £15m is their money.

[Croesy Blue]

Jirga ^

[Baloo]

I thought there was an issue over registration - ie SALA hadn't actually been registered with the FAW, and therefore was not a CCFC player.

From what I’ve read, it’s been confirmed Sala was registered with the FAW. But there was some doubt whether he’d been registered with the PL. Again just based on what I’ve read the PL part is not relevant as far as the transfer was concerned so he was definitely our player at the time of the crash.

[Flyer46]

We're getting some flack from a few angles here, but to my mind, we are well within our rights to withhold payment pending investigation.

Mckay worked for Nantes; He was being paid 10% of the fee to facilitate the transfer. Mckay also organised the flight, and it has been widely speculated on the aviation forums that given the conditions & qualificatios of the pilot - the flight should never have taken place when it did.

Are Nantes not culpable here? An employee of theirs facilitated the flight.

Happy to be challenged here - but thats how i'm seeing things.

I don't think the payment should be withheld pending the investigation, the AAIB investigation could be a very long drawn out process as there are now so many angles that will be getting looked at & the investigation is an aviation investigation that sadly involved a footballer & a pilot in a private aircraft.

Irrespective of what has been widely speculated on the aviation forums that given the conditions & qualifications of the pilot the flight should never have taken place with that pilot at the controls at night. Had the flight taken place at the time that the pilot thought it was supposed to have been scheduled for the chances are we wouldn't be discussing this now.

The pilot was pressured to fly back at night whilst having a Daylight only restriction on his licence, so in terms of who is ultimately culpable I hate to say the pilot is, he should have delayed the flight until the Tuesday morning to allow him to fly within his licence privileges....... Now in real terms I feel all the culpability falls at the feet of the persons who organised the flight ( which includes the pilot usually employed by the McKays & all the people who were skimming a bit away for themselves in the Sala TRANSFER & flight arrangements. )

If the facts are true that the McKay's are on a 10% payday I would say it is fair that any payments that were pledged to them should be withheld whilst the full investigation is ongoing, you can't reward someone for getting something so monumentally wrong. As to the payments due to Nantes I am loathe to say that you purchased the player from them and a set deal was made, you can't renege on that because a noxious football agent screwed it all up for you........ Suing the football agent is the only option, however it now seems he hasn't a pot to piss in and survives on O.P.M. so that isn't going to help much.

[Flyer46]

Unfortunately Emiliano Sala had become a CCFC player at the time of the accident, so it is difficult to argue that you want to hold back the payment when the player had become a CCFC asset, however with all the various agents wanting their cut (five at the last count, plus others hovering on the edges), the particularly impressive efforts of one of these middle men, the consistently virulent Willie McKay who if he had a morsel of compassion wouldn't be demanding his 10%. Willie McKay claims he said “We are not interested in your personal belongings, finances, holidays, babysitting, it’s not our business.” so if he really had said all that why did he get involved in the planning of what for all intents and purposes was 'babysitting Sala during his vacation' to say goodbye to his former team mates? The only objective McKay ever had was explained very matter-of-factly in that he wanted to make money from Sala's transfer. Sala was his latest payday source and McKay happily admitted he had planted misinformation in the media about Everton and West Ham wanting the 28-year-old striker, trying to whip up interest. McKay also said “We do not say ‘we are like a father to a son to our players’. No, if you had not been a footballer these people would not be interested in you. No sentiment, we’re just doing business.”
That is about the most callous remark I have ever heard from someone who is supposed to be looking after a player's best interests.

It is fair to say McKay has been a notorious figure in football for some time. So notorious, indeed, that there was a time when Newcastle United, early in the Mike Ashley era, had a policy not to deal with McKay because, in the words of the then chief executive, Derek Llambias, they did not want to engage with “an animal like that”.

I know football is a cut-throat industry and that there are always leeches on the make by whatever means they can use, I am amazed that any football club would want to deal with someone like Willie McKay who is renowned for being mercenary when it comes to transfer deals.

[Divine Wright]

More noise by a guy complaining about the noise.

Let the clubs do what they have got to do and stop reporting on it if you are so concerned.

[Michael Morris]

The roles and responsibilities in this tragedy are going to take a long time to sort out.

At the centre of the situation is human loss. So far Cardiff City have acted above and beyond in their comments, matchday experience, media and social media output.

What they don't need is to be involved in a public spat over financial dealings.