West Ham and AFC Wimbledon players did not wear black armbands for Sala during their Cup clash with West Ham on Saturday evening out respect to his family wishes. Earlier FA Cup games during the day saw the introduction of black armbands by the FA for the missing striker.
Sala decided to return to his new headquarters in a single-engine Piper PA-46, apparently refusing Cardiff’s offer of a commercial flight.
Most club chairmen, including mine, regard single-engine flights risky and would surely have strongly advised Sala not to travel in the Piper.
Our club’s flights are in a 45-seater and even this transport unsettles a few players. So what can Cardiff and Sala’s family expect of insurance cover, beside his own? The Premier League and players’ union are looking into what is bound to be a complicated problem.
If Sala’s transfer has been registered with the Premier League, his family will be entitled to a 4x salary union benefit, up to a cap of £600,000.
The Cardiff case is even more knotty because of the proximity of Sala’s signing to his death. The PL may make exceptions but their current payment will almost certainly be under £1million, perhaps nothing at all. Neither would his new club receive a penny under their catastrophe cover, should they have it.
In insurance terms, it needs three players’ deaths to amount to a catastrophe. In boss Neil Warnock’s terms one is more than enough to qualify. The search continues and we all pray for a miracle.”
What I’d like to know is, why are things always badly timed on the club official website. The Arnie grovelling to the fans video straight after getting knocked out the cup. And then followed up with a vote for your favourite Dicanio goal the best of which as we all know because it was voted goal of the century or something, Dicanio s goal against, yes you guessed it, Wimbledon.