Police probe McKay amid ‘kill’ threat allegation
Ex-agent who booked fatal Sala flight investigated Cardiff felt it ‘necessary’ to ‘engage’ South Wales force
Police are investigating alleged threats by Willie McKay towards senior Cardiff City officials, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.
An inquiry has been launched amid accusations that the man who booked Emiliano Sala’s doomed flight threatened to “kill everybody” at the club.
A complaint by Cardiff also claims he made similar threats against specific individuals, both in person and over the telephone.
The Telegraph has been told by sources close to the club that these individuals, whom this newspaper has agreed not to name, are taking the threats seriously and have provided witness statements to that effect.
The police investigation is a major escalation in the acrimonious fallout from the fatal Jan 21 plane crash.
South Wales Police said that it “can confirm that a complaint has been received from Cardiff City Football Club and is currently being investigated”.
On conviction, a death threat is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Cardiff declined to comment beyond stating: “It was necessary and appropriate for South Wales Police to be engaged on the matter.”
But The Telegraph has learnt they accuse McKay of threatening to “kill everybody” at the club on the weekend of the footballer’s funeral in Argentina last month.
He is alleged to have told club officials: “I’ll kill everybody if my sons get slaughtered.”
McKay’s eldest son, Mark, was one of the agents involved in Sala’s transfer from Nantes to Cardiff, while another of his sons, Jack, helped make arrangements for the player’s doomed trip.
McKay has previously claimed he and his children – two of whom are Cardiff players – had “been through hell” over reprisals after the crash.
He has also accused Cardiff of “trying to throw me under the bus” over Sala’s death and of knowing about all flights arranged as part of the striker’s transfer.
This newspaper has been told his alleged threats prompted club lawyers to write to his lawyers requesting he desist and banning him from their stadium.
McKay did not respond to requests for comment yesterday, having previously been abusive towards Telegraph reporters investigating the flight that killed Sala.
News of the police investigation follows an explosive television interview with McKay last week that cast major doubt on the legality of the flight.
In it, McKay admitted agreeing to pay the entire cost of the journey, a practice banned for such trips under the Civil Aviation Act.
That is because neither the pilot, Dave Ibbotson, nor the plane, a Piper Malibu PA-46-310P, had been licensed to undertake commercial flights.
McKay’s confession could be the catalyst for negligence and other legal claims by Cardiff against him and Sala’s former club Nantes – for whom Mark had worked during the player’s move to Wales and was due 10 per cent of the transfer fee.
McKay has repeatedly stated that Sala’s fatal flight was booked via Dave Henderson – an experienced light-aircraft pilot who had flown him around Europe many times – and that he had no input into the selection of pilot or plane.
Henderson has yet to comment on any of McKay’s claims and attempts to reach him last week were unsuccessful. Ibbotson, who died with £23,400 worth of county court judgments against him, is still missing-presumeddead following the crash in the English Channel.
It emerged yesterday that he had dropped out of a commercial pilot’s licence course in 2014 after failing to complete his theoretical training.
Cardiff have frozen payment of Sala’s record £15million transfer fee to the French club pending the outcome of the investigation into his plane crash.
On Tuesday, Nantes lodged a formal complaint over the non-payment with Fifa, which later confirmed it was investigating.
It could be forced to arbitrate in a case complicated by Sala having signed a potentially invalid contract with Cardiff, who plan to argue that made his transfer from Nantes incomplete.
Speaking in Aberdeen at the annual meeting of the International Football Association Board, Fifa president Gianni Infantino said the entire Sala saga had been a “terrible tragedy”.
He said of the investigation: “We have to see what the consequences are.”