UK Edition
Cardiff City chairman demands tougher action on agents after Emiliano Sala tragedy
The Cardiff City chairman claimed the activities of broker Willie McKay in the Emiliano Sala tragedy were "shoddy" as he called for a "big bang" shake up in football to outlaw so-called Wild West dealings by agents.
Mehmet Dalman, who is also lobbying the Government and Premier League to announce new laws to ensure athletes use only commercially-licensed aircraft, believes the sport should fall in line with the same safeguards that are in place in the financial sector. Recriminations over the Piper PA-46 Malibu crash still simmer between Cardiff, Nantes and McKay, the unlicensed intermediary in the deal to sign the Argentinian from the French club in January.
In his first full interview since Sala died, Dalman told the Daily Telegraph that Cardiff, recently relegated from the Premier League, will pay the full £15million transfer fee if Fifa decide the Welsh club is legally liable.
However, he said he believed the activities behind the deal were "shoddy behaviour". Mark McKay, Willie’s son, had a mandate from Nantes to sell Sala to a UK club for 10% of the eventual £15m fee. However, McKay senior still played a central role in the transfer, despite falling foul of Football Association rules disqualifying people with bankruptcy orders from being registered intermediaries.
Responding to the allegations, McKay told Telegraph Sport: "Mehmet's a lovely man. He's been great for Cardiff City and my sons. Mehmet's going to do what he's going to do... I know he is under pressure from the owner."
McKay said he had been acting in good faith by helping his son with the Sala transfer. He also pointed out that he had arranged the flight through the same man who had been helping him book flights for more than a decade.
"I'm from the City of London," said Dalman. ""My business is finance. Imagine we have a broker who has just been found guilty of whatever and he comes back as a broker hiding behind someone else's licence - there would be uproar. Why should football be any different? The whole intermediary issue needs to be dealt with."
As well as calling for tougher action on agents, Dalman and Cardiff have joined forces with the Air Charter Association (Baca) to demand "urgent action on illegal flights" and tougher punishments to protect all athletes from so-called "grey charters". Part-time gas engineer Dave Ibbotson, who also died, was colour blind and unlicensed to take fee-paying passengers.
"This dreadful tragedy has highlighted that you can't sit still and do nothing any more," he said. "A 28-year-old boy lost his life because somebody or somebodies didn't do proper due diligence. There was no regulation around it. Dalman confirmed he had spoken to police over alleged threats made by McKay to Cardiff officials.
The chairman said, however, that he still believed McKay "did the best that he thought he could do for the boy" in booking him on the doomed flight back from France on January 21. "Because it's how it's always been done, nobody questions it," he said. "So when we offered the British Airways flight to the player and he turned us down we assumed he had his own arrangements and it was no longer our concern. We made the offer and he declined. He didn't want to take the train because it would have taken longer and McKay's son stepped in and said 'don't worry about it, I'll get my dad to fix it'. I don't know Willie McKay at all. I've never met him and I don't particularly want to meet him. He acted in good intentions, but that doesn't make it right."
McKay should never have been involved in the deal, he said. "First of all, I find it quite remarkable that he goes public and says 'I paid for the flight'. That makes it illegal, game, set and match. Secondly, he says I bumped up the price and I lied about other clubs being interested. In the City of London, you go to prison. That is share price manipulation, yet we think it's okay and the guy keeps doing interviews. I don't think he means bad. He just doesn't know any different. There is a subtle difference."
A Fifa investigation into the deal is currently deciding whether Cardiff are liable to pay the full £15million fee to Nantes. Dalman says he does not blame McKay or Nantes for the deal, but says: "We all have to take responsibility. We cannot take responsibility for what happened in the accident, but I just feel we should never have accepted the intermediary agent of this ilk. We need more regulation. I'm not saying we shouldn't have agents. Clearly they play a significant role in our industry, but it has to be regulated properly."
Dalman, who admitted he initially opposed the deal after being quoted a £15million fee by McKay, said football needed an equivalent overhaul to the 1986 "big bang" in London, which saw the capital switch from traditional face-to-face share dealing to electronic trading.
"I think football now, the size of the industry we are in, needs a big bang. I think it's bigger than the credit crunch. We need an entire overhaul in the exchange. It needs a big bang in how its governed because we are talking multi-billions and it's going to double, treble in the next three decades. We need to step up."
Fifa's proposals for transfer "clearing houses" are a step in the right direction, he said, "but I would like to see more urgency about it".
"We aren't punishing them," he said. "We need moves to be able to punish people for negligence. I don't want to focus on McKay, but he works for Nantes, therefore it's the responsibility of Nantes, but where are they being held accountable for this.... as far as I'm concerned, I hold Nantes responsible for hiring an intermediary, a broker, and for allowing him to make the arrangements."
Cardiff are in talks with Sala's family about setting up a trust fund, it is understood.
Responding to the allegations, McKay told Telegraph Sport: "Mehmet's a lovely man. He's been great for Cardiff City and my sons. Mehmet's going to do what he's going to do... I know he is under pressure from the owner."
McKay said he had been acting in good faith by helping his son with the Sala transfer. He also pointed out that he had arranged the flight through the same man who had been helping him book flights for more than a decade.