By Rob Cole
Cardiff City chairman Mehmet Dalman has revealed the club offered to arrange for a flight to bring their record signing Emiliano Sala to the Welsh capital, but the player opted to make his own way.
That decision ended in tragedy on Monday night when the Piper Malibu light aircraft in which he was travelling from Nantes to Cardiff was lost while flying at around 2,500ft off Alderney in the Channel Islands.
The search for the 28-year-old Argentine striker and the pilot of the plane was suspended on Tuesday night due to the conditions, but resumed once again on Wednesday morning.
Coast-guards in Guernsey were considering the possibility the plane may have landed in the water and the two men were drifting somewhere in a life-raft.
But there are reports the mission has turned into one of recovery not rescue as officials admitted there was ‘no hope’ of finding either Sala or the pilot alive.
“We won’t leave a single stone unturned until we have all the facts,” said Dalman.
“I can’t tell you who arranged the flight at this stage because I don’t know. It certainly wasn’t Cardiff City.
“All we do know is we spoke to the player and asked him if he wanted us to make arrangements for his flight, which quite frankly would have been commercial. He declined and made his own arrangements.”
While fans in Nantes, where Sala had played for the past four seasons, held an overnight vigil in the city centre, Cardiff City supporters left their own tributes at the feet of the statue of club legend Fred Keenor outside the Cardiff City Stadium.
“It is a tragedy I have never found before and I hope no one else does. It is quite unreal,” said Dalman.
“It has affected the club remarkably and our hearts go out to the family, especially those very far away,
“With the lack of information it is an unsettling time. We need to get on with doing all the right things and we want to make sure that all the information we need to have is here.
“We have got to make sure we are doing the right things for Nantes FC and their fans, as well as keeping our own fans informed.”
Cardiff have a weekend off having been knocked out of the FA Cup by Gillingham, but are due to be back in Premier League action on Tuesday night against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.
While Leicester City had a game postponed following the death of their chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha in a helicopter crash at the King Power Stadium in October, Dalman doesn’t think there will be a similar situation next week.
“I would be surprised if there was any change,” he said, “but the reaction we have had from the football family and beyond has been overwhelming.
“The football family has a way of coming together in times of tragedy. I have had e-mails and text messages from right across the world and I have had text messages from a President of a country and an Ambassador to wish us well.
“Vincent Tan is in the same position as us all and is very upset. This was a big decision for the club and it was one of the biggest budgets we had ever put together.
“We were in the process of negotiating something we thought would be a game changer for the club.”
