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Why are we continuing to drag this on? It’s embarrassing and crass. He was our player. What am I missing?
Does the responsibility on that not come down to Sala? If he turns down our flight and chooses to arrange one of his own accord with McKay, what difference does it make that he was acting on behalf of Nantes on this particular deal?
I’m struggling to see our case and think it epitomises the sad state of football that we are still pursuing this
It may not be morally attractive but legally it would appear Cardiff City .....as in the business ......not us the fans ......have a very good case
If tan and the club win that 120 million then that would reduce the debt and make the sale of the club more attractive
It's said a lot of our fanbase want a new owner ......well this is part of the process it could be argued ?
I am not taking sides , I am saying if this happens it could be a progress forward
Perhaps it was Sala’s choice, not to spends hours at an airport, to sit next to the great unwashed on a flight. Then spend further time getting off the plane, queue for the passport check, collect own luggage and then face an hour transfer from Bristol to Cardiff. do both us and Nantes sue him and his insurance?
Considering the money he was about to earn he took the convenient option (most would) - probably wouldn’t have come out of his pocket anyway.
If you blame Sala for making that choice then, is it fair that Cardiff have to payout still and is it fair that Nantes have to write off their asset?
The whole thing as a mess and there are no winners here and above all else a couple of young men have lost their lives - as if the families weren’t heartbroken enough they still have this to deal with.
We are all guessing here and my two pence worth is Tan went after McKay and proved that he was acting for Nantes in some capacity. This being done and the fact that the flight was illegal in the sense that the pilot was not qualified gives Tan a very credible case in my view.A result in Tan's favour would enable him to sell the club at a realistic price as well as leaving us in a much healthier position financially.I think that Sludge is on the money.
If the French court thinks it's an entirely spurious case they'll kick it out. If they don't do that then they clearly think there's an argument worth hearing. Let's see what happens.
I think I read somewhere that it is completely forbidden in French criminal law (not just civil) for a football team to work with unlicensed agents. Some arrests have already been made
If the French courts are gunning for Nantes and we can draw a line between Nantes > McKay > Sala, then it does smell like we have a case, especially in France for Nantes falling foul of using unlicensed agents.
You can't trust the French, but let's see if they do something honest for once, I doubt they will though, a decent case if it was held anywhere else i would have through.
Lets hope Kitman is right about this
I think I read somewhere that it is completely forbidden in French criminal law (not just civil) for a football team to work with unlicensed agents. Some arrests have already been made
If the French courts are gunning for Nantes and we can draw a line between Nantes > McKay > Sala, then it does smell like we have a case, especially in France for Nantes falling foul of using unlicensed agents.
I don’t blame anyone bar the people who knew the pilot wasn’t fit to fly. Even if McKay was one of them, I still don’t see where Nantes come in to it?
If he had gone back to Nantes 4 weeks later and this had happened would it even be a thing? It feels to me we are trying to create a grey area around the timing of everything but the deal and the responsibilities of certain agents and clubs but the deal had been completed and Nantes had no obligation to put him on any transport.
All seems very wrong to me. As is the laughable sums they have come up with. Our club is once again being dragged through the mud
Weren't we cosying up to the same agent? Warnock and other club officials had already flown over on the same plane or at least with the same pilot? VI'm sure I remember seeing that at the time.
We also of course had his two sons in our academy suddenly.
I've really lost interest in all this a while ago so I have no real idea about how this will go but other than the insurance settlement the club has lost every case on this.
I'd have liked a line drawn under it long ago. People will say it's easy when it's not my money, well let's hope Tan wins something then as overall the costs must have risen substantially, not forgetting the time and energy being put into this. Premier league club for court cases.
Tan is not stupid , perhaps a lawyer has told him he has say a 60/40 chance on the many millions , its stick or twist, I'd twist and chase the money for the price of a lawyer and court fee's .
This tragic incident has really effected the club in so many ways ,for so many years .
The club hasn't won an insurance settlement. There was no insurance cover for Emiliano Sala at the time of his death.
It has sued its' insurance broker (Miller Insurance Services LLP) for professional misconduct/negligence - and accepted an undisclosed out of court offer from them in settlement of the claim.
In French law it is a criminal act for unlicenced agents to act in player transfers. The president of Nantes and his son have both been charged by the French court in using unlicenced agents since 2015 together with fraud and money laundering. In this case an unlicenced agent viz. McKay acted for Nantes in the Sala transfer and in law the agent is deemed to be the club. Therefore the contract between FC Nantes and Cardiff City FC could be considered by the Court to be illegal and null and void. The matter as to who arranged the flight is important but not the nub of the matter. Cardiff City lawyers consider they have a good case as they did with the insurers who settled out of court. We will see how this matter pans out but the consensus is that there will be a settlement before the matter reaches court.
I understood that the relevant French law means that the club that employs an agent (in this case McKay - Mark and/or Willie) is liable for the actions of that agent, in a way that is less explicit and clear in UK law. The Sala transfer was complete at the time of his death in a grey flight organised by Willie McKay, but Mark McKay was still contracted to Nantes at the time and using his father Willie (who was disqualified as an agent) to act on his behalf with the knowledge of Nantes.
As far as I can see the question of the transfer is not really relevant to the civil case. Nantes (through their agent McKay) were a third party who arranged an illegal flight that killed Sala and caused Cardiff City a financial loss. The club want to recover their loss, and most of the legal and (French) press commentary I have seen suggests there is a strong case.
I think you are correct in thinking that our links to McKay, be they direct or indirect, are somewhat concerning. It would be interesting to find out the circumstances of the signing of the McKay twins - was it approved by the Transfer Committee or was the decision delegated to Warnock as it was for the U21s and not the first team?
We know that Dalman, Choo and the Transfer Committee said no to the transfer. Whether that decision was because of the agent involved, the £15m fee, a 5 year contract and £50k per week or all of the above we may never know but it should have ended there. But no, Warnock, not content with that decision went behind the backs of Messrs Dalman and Choo and appealed directly to Tan, the ultimate decision maker. Sadly, he said yes and the rest is history. You can imagine Warnock saying to Tan that he is the expert with promotions galore and that the Transfer Committee haven't got a clue. If we had had football expertise on the Board at the time it might have given weight to the original decision to say no to the deal. However, as we know, Tan doesn't trust anyone so won't countenance such an appointment as a DoF but, at the time, must have trusted Warnock to say yes to the deal.
Perhaps Tan's motivation for pursuing this litigation as far as it can go is not just for obvious financial reasons but also to try and save face as a result of his intervention. After all, if he had trusted his decision makers in Cardiff, we would not be where we are now.