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.
My love affair with the world’s greatest football tournament began as a 14 year-old as I was there to see England lift the trophy at Wembley. Later in life I was privileged to write Pelé’s official autobiography and tell the inside story of the great man’s first World Cup at the age of 17 and interviewed many of The Greatest Ever World Cup Team, Brazil 1970. How I pulled off becoming the only journalist to interview Diego Maradona one-to-one in the back seat of Ossie Ardiles’ car in 1986 must be one of the most off beat World Cup stories of all time. As Chief Football Writer for the Daily Mirror I was at the Azteca Stadium to witness both the Hand of God and the Greatest Ever World Cup goal within minutes of each other.
At Italia ’90 it was all about Gazza’s tears, and I was there to document all the behind the scenes stories. Four years later, I was at the press conference following Maradona’s failed drugs test. At France ’98 I witnessed David Beckham’s red card and the incredible fall out. Prior to the 2002 tournament I won the award of “Sports Story of the Year” by breaking Roy Keane’s bust up with Mick McCarthy, while I was also at the press conference when Ruud Gullit announced he was leaving the World Cup squad. In my career with the Mail, Mirror and Express I have known and become friends with most of the Boys of ‘66. My greatest wish - to see England win the World Cup in 2026 after 60 years of hurt!
