CARDIFF have promised they WILL abide by Fifa’s decision on the Emiliano Sala tragedy. But the Welsh club is urging the Premier League and FA to “urgently” introduce new policies to prevent future “illegal” flights by players. Cardiff refused to meet French club Nantes’ demands for full payment of the £15million fee after Sala’s private […]
CARDIFF have promised they WILL abide by Fifa’s decision on the Emiliano Sala tragedy.
But the Welsh club is urging the Premier League and FA to “urgently” introduce new policies to prevent future “illegal” flights by players.
Cardiff refused to meet French club Nantes’ demands for full payment of the £15million fee after Sala’s private flight crashed in the Channel the night before he was due to join up with Neil Warnock’s squad in January.
Fifa intervened in February after the fall-out between Cardiff and French club Nantes over the late Argentine striker became increasingly bitter.
Subsequent investigations have discovered Dave Ibbotson, the pilot of the flight, was not licenced to operate commercial aircraft while Sala was terrified at the condition of the Piper Malibu before it took off on its doomed journey.
Bluebirds chairman Mehmet Dalman said: “We have always said this is a tragedy that we don’t want to make about money.
“Fifa encouraged the clubs to jointly find a way forward. We reached out but Nantes made it clear that they do not want a dialogue.
“We understand that. Now it’s over to Fifa.
“If we can find a path, we will find a path. We are very open. We don’t want to be difficult on issues such as this.”
Cardiff feel it might take up to a year for resolution and Dalman says action is required now to prevent a recurrence in the future, urging the FA, Premier League and EFL to adopt new rules drafted by the Welsh club.
He said: “When this tragedy happened, the football world, like us, was shocked.
“But if you talk to the aviation people, they were not surprised. In fact, they said that something of this high profile would be the catalyst for change.
“This brought it home to us and smacked us in the face – it’s time to wake up.
“We are not asking for rocket science. They just need to have a willingness to do it.
“Appointing an aviation expert to sign off every single flight a club does of or for players is not that much of an ask.
“But it would ensure safety checks are in place. These are not difficult things to ask people to do. It’s that simple.”
Dalman believes the horrendous events are a sign of the “wild west culture” in football, with fingers pointed at agent Willie McKay.
His son Mark was the actual intermediary on the Sala deal, although McKay Sr accompanied Warnock on two scouting missions.
McKay says he has been made the “scapegoat” but Dalman added: “The intermediary acted with good faith. There is no question of bad faith.
“Nantes probably didn’t understand what was going on, but was again with good faith.
“But tragedies do happen with good faith.
“We had an airplane that was not licenced to fly commercially and a pilot who did not have the right licence to take that flight. How can this be right?
“Nobody really took responsibility for checking the licence or condition of the plane, the licence or experience of the pilot.”
Quizzed if Cardiff had suffered reputational damage, Dalman argued to the contrary, adding: “It’s not that we allowed it to happen. We didn’t know.
“We offered a BA flight.The player said he would make his own way and later said coming on private plane and pick me up at the airport at 10pm. We didn’t know what was being arranged.
“There has been complacency across the board.
“Since what happened we have put this policy in place at Cardiff.
“We all have a tendency to forget. I don’t want people to go back to their own ways again because lives are at stake.”
