The Telegraph said an internal Cardiff inquiry had found no evidence that Ibbotson held the licence necessary to carry passengers on a commercial basis. If the AAIB report upholds this view, it may constitute the basis for a claim of negligence against whoever recruited Ibbotson as the pilot for Sala’s flight. A successful negligence claim against Nantes would reduce the transfer fee that Cardiff owed the French club. “We believe that the player was not registered with the Premier League,” Cardiff chairman Mehmet Dalman told the Telegraph. Sala was buried in his hometown of Progreso in Argentina on Saturday, with Cardiff manager Neil Warnock and club executive Ken Choo among the mourners.

Source: Punch February 17, 2019 13:30 UTC