Police have issued a harassment warning to Willie McKay, the former football agent who helped complete the ill-fated Emiliano Sala transfer, following a complaint he threatened to “kill everybody” at Cardiff City, according to a report.
McKay was the subject of an investigation by South Wales Police over claims he threatened to kill staff at the club in a dispute about who is liable for damages following Sala’s death.
The investigation was later transferred to the Metropolitan Police after it emerged one of the alleged threats made by McKay to a member of staff at Cardiff was claimed to have occurred in London.
“(We) have received an allegation of a possible public order offence that took place at Kendall Street, W2 on Friday, 22 February,” a Met spokesperson said in March.
Confirming its investigation into the London altercation had “now concluded”, the Met told the Daily Telegraph: “A man, aged in his fifties, was interviewed under caution on Tuesday, May 28. He was not arrested. The man was issued with a first instance harassment warning.”
Sala died, along with pilot David Ibbotson, when the Piper Malibu aircraft they were travelling in came down in the English Channel on 21 January.
That prompted an outpouring of grief throughout football but particularly at the 28-year-old striker’s former club Nantes and Cardiff, the team that had just made him their record signing.
The united response did not last long, though, as Nantes pressed for payment of their £15million fee, while Cardiff said they wanted to wait for a full investigation into the accident.
Within days of Sala’s death, the focus had shifted to how the deal was put together and specifically what role McKay, 59, played in the transfer and who arranged the doomed flight.
The Monaco-based Scot explained that he was helping his son Mark, who was acting for Nantes, to complete the deal and that he paid for the flight, and several others related to the transfer, but did not choose the pilot or the plane.
It has also emerged that his son Jack McKay, who is on Cardiff’s books with his twin brother Paul, made some of the arrangements for the flight with Sala.
Willie and Mark McKay have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and Willie McKay accused the club of “trying to throw him under the bus”. He also told the BBC that he and his family have “been through hell”.
