Overview

When the single-engined Piper Malibu plane carrying Cardiff City's record £15m signing, Emiliano Sala, crashed into the English Channel on 21st January 2019 killing both the footballer and the pilot, David Ibbotson, it shone a light on the murky world of football transfers. Using his unrivalled contacts in the game, award-winning journalist Harry Harris helped the resulting investigation in the Daily Telegraph to uncover the way in which agents and clubs work. Emiliano Sala was a relative unknown for most of his career, the Argentinian had been at half a dozen clubs in French football without making much of an impact, but when he hit a goalscoring hot-streak in the autumn of 2018 his timing was perfect as the January transfer window approached. When Mr Fix It', agent Willie McKay, approached his club Nantes for an agreement to handle the sale of their striker promising a deal in the region of 20m Euros, their chairman Waldemar Kita leapt at the chance; the French club had bought Sala a few years earlier for just 1m Euros. Meanwhile, newly-promoted Cardiff City had struggled to adjust to life in the richest league in the world. Manager Neil Warnock desperately needed a striker and pinned his hopes on the gangly, good-natured Argentinian as the man who could keep the Bluebirds among the elite. The player, finding himself in demand for the first time in his career, may have been initially reluctant to move to the Welsh capital but a new weekly wage offer of £50,000 and the agent's promise that it might lead to a move to one of the top six clubs was far too tempting to turn down. It was a life-changing amount of money for him and his family. Controversial agent Willie McKay manoeuvred himself into position to exploit the situation, helping his son to negotiate a ten percent cut of the eventual transfer fee and lucrative bonus payments. Many deals are conducted in this way during every transfer window. Unfortunately for those involved here, this was the one that ended in tragedy and sparked investigations by more than one UK police force, the Air Accidents Investigation Bureau, FIFA, the Premier League, the FA, and the FA of Wales. It has already led to the imprisonment of two people with the potential for many more to find themselves in the dock. As the research of investigative journalist Harry Harris shows here, The Killing of Emilano Sala was no accident.

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9781909360723

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Harry Harris has written about 20 books on Chelsea, including FOUR tomes on José Mourinho, THREE on Ruud Gullit, plus biographies of Franco Zola, Luca Vialli, Antonio Conte, and an autobiography of Kerry Dixon. He took part in a documentary about “Battle of the Bridge” behind the scenes conflict between Ken Bates and Matthew Harding which he turned into a best selling book. In fact Harry has written a record 90 football books in his distinguished career. As a young journalist at the London Evening News Harry ghosted a column for Chelsea manager Danny Blanchflower and was close to many of the Chelsea players. Harry went on to become a double winner of the British Sports Journalist of the Year award and was presented with the British Variety Club of Great Britain Silver Heart for ‘Contribution to Sports Journalism’ and is the only journalist ever to win the Sports Story of the Year accolade twice. Harry has a total of 24 industry awards. One of the most influential football columnists for three decades, Harry is one of the most acclaimed investigative journalists and news gatherers of his generation. He is currently Sports Development Director for SmartFrame Technologies.

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