Emiliano Sala crash trial: Aircraft operator found guilty at trial

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CARDIFF, Wales — The businessman who organized the flight that resulted in the death of Argentine soccer player Emiliano Sala was found guilty on Thursday of endangering the safety of an aircraft.

Sala died after the single-engine Piper Malibu aircraft in which he was traveling crashed in the English Channel on Jan. 21, 2019. Sala, who had played for French club Nantes, was traveling to join his new team, Cardiff, in Wales. The body of the pilot, David Ibbotson, was never recovered.

David Henderson, the aircraft operator who arranged the flight, had asked Ibbotson to fly the plane as he was away on holiday. Ibbotson, who regularly flew for Henderson, did not hold a commercial pilot’s license or a qualification to fly at night, and his rating to fly the Piper Malibu had expired.

[ MORE: How to watch Premier League in USA ]

The 67-year-old Henderson was convicted by a jury at Cardiff Crown Court by a majority verdict of 10-2.

The jury heard how just moments after finding out the plane had gone down, Henderson sent text messages to a number of people telling them to stay silent, warning it would “open a can of worms.” He said in court he had feared an investigation into his business dealings.

Prosecutor Martin Goudie said Henderson had been “reckless or negligent” in the way he operated the plane, putting his business above the safety of passengers. Goudie said Henderson had created a culture of breaching the air-navigation regulations among the pilots he hired.

Defense attorney Stephen Spence said his client’s actions were “purely a paperwork issue” and had not led to a likelihood of danger. Spence said Henderson knew Ibbotson, who had been flying for decades and had accumulated around 3,500 flying miles, was an experienced pilot.

Henderson had previously admitted to a separate offense of attempting to discharge a passenger without valid permission or authorization.

He was granted bail to return to be sentenced for both offenses on Nov. 12.

Cala denies racist abuse of Diakhaby; Valencia: ‘We don’t believe you’

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Juan Cala, the Cadiz player accused of racially abusing Valencia defender Mouctar Diakhaby, has denied the serious allegations against him.

Cala, 32, called a news conference on Tuesday to explain his side of the story after Diakhaby and his Valencia teammates walked off the pitch in the first half of their 2-1 defeat at Cadiz on Sunday following the alleged incident.

Diakhaby did not return to the pitch but his teammates did as they say they were ‘forced to’ after officials said they faced sanctions if they did not complete the game.

The Valencia defender claims that Cala said “f****** Black” to him, as he then told the referee before play was suspended as Valencia’s players walked off.

Diakhaby then claimed that one of the Cadiz players asked a Valencia player in the locker room if they would come back out onto the pitch if Cala apologized and Valencia said no.

Here was the response from Cala regarding the accusations against him.

“It seems that we are in the Wild West,” Cala said. “I don’t know what has happened to the presumption of innocence. Nobody deserves this public lynching. Here’s my phone number to at least apologise… I don’t know if Diakhaby made it up, if he misinterpreted it? I don’t know. I’ve lived with Chinese, South Africans. I’ve been in Guinea with [Frederic] Kanoute and Benjamin [Zarandona]. It’s incredible what is happening. I am in a state of shock. We are [playing] football without a crowd. There are 20-25 cameras, microphones, players, referees… and nobody hears anything.”

Cala added that he wanted to speak about the incident right away but waited for Cadiz to set up the press conference, and said he is ready to start legal action regarding the accusations against him.

“There is no racism in Spanish football,” Cala added. “I have no problem sitting down with him [Diakhaby]. What has developed is a circus.”

Valencia issued a strongly-worded statement quickly after Cala’s denial, with the headline ‘Juan Cala, we do not believe you’ and said they are ‘deeply saddened by statements made by Cadiz CF player Juan Cala, in which 48 hours later, he denied racially insulting Mouctar Diakhaby.’

Here is the rest of the statement from Valencia.

“Cala has missed a great opportunity to accept his mistake and apologise to the player affected. Instead of doing this, he attacked both Diakhaby and other members of Valencia CF,” the statement read. “We wish to reiterate that we believe our player and back him completely. After the threats made by Cala in his press conference this Tuesday, April 6th, the Club, president Anil Murthy and Mouctar Diakhaby himself remain firm in the conviction to fight to the end, wherever necessary, on the matter for the good of football and society. Valencia CF will not stop fighting for an improvement in protocol and in the battle against racism in football.”

Diakhaby has spoken publicly about the incident, saying he hopes La Liga and the Spanish Football Federation sanction Cala and Cadiz and investigate the situation fully.

How did home teams fare Saturday in fans return to Football League?

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More than a dozen matches around England saw the return of fans Saturday, and reports of increased intensity were no surprise.

Our Joe Prince-Wright was at one of those matches, Chelsea’s 3-1 defeat of Leeds, and said the overriding emotions were of comfort and normalcy.

[ MORE: Lampard on Pulisic goal, Chelsea’s title hopes ]

Was it in the players’ heads at all? Whether psychological or not, comments around the Football League system showed that fans’ presence lived inside the players’ and coaches’ heads in a mostly positive way (aside from a very unsavory racist incident at Millwall).


Premier League — Home teams 1W-1L

No surprises here in terms of results, where two of the traditional big boys took care of business with relatively dominant wins (though Man United needed a comeback at West Ham).

Chelsea 3-1 Leeds United — JPW noted the feelings around Stamford Bridge during the contest in his live analysis, as well as comments from Olivier Giroud, Frank Lampard, and Marcelo Bielsa acknowledging the influence of the crowd.

West Ham United 1-3 Manchester United — The Irons gave their fans an early lead but not much else, as Bruno Fernandes gave a master class in super subbery to lead a three-goal second half.

Marcus Rashford was buoyed by the win but also by the fans. From ManUtd.com:

“Brilliant. It is something that everybody knows the game has missed and it is what makes the game so special,” Rashford said.


Championship — Home teams 2W-1D-2L

Both of the winning home teams were top-end sides hosting teams in the lower half, but both winning visitors entered the day at least seven points behind their hosts. Blackburn and Brentford were the two nearest opponents, table wise, and the visitors scored their equalizer despite being down a man.

Watford 0-1 Cardiff City — The visitors surprised the hosts, and the Vicarage Road crowd had the Bluebirds hoping to see fans in their building soon.

“It was a great boost having fans here and I am really pleased for them, it was nice to play in a stadium with some atmosphere. Having seen the noise 2000 fans can make, it would be great to have fans back at the Cardiff City Stadium,” said manager Neil Harris.

Reading 2-0 Nottingham Forest

Brentford 2-2 Blackburn — 10-man visitors come back from 2-1 deficit to draw in 87th minute.

Millwall 0-1 Derby County — Ugly scenes as fans booed the players taking a knee in support of Black Lives Matter, then saw their Lions lose late.

Norwich City 2-1 Sheffield Wednesday — The Canaries came back through two late goals for the 2000 fans at Carrow Road, and Daniel Farke was happy to see them.

“It was great to at least have 2,000 yellow shirts here. I celebrated with our supporters because they also played their part during difficult periods in the game, they were unbelievably noisy,” Farke said.


League One — Home teams 1D-2L

Like the Championship, the winning visitors were both above the hosts on the table and both hosts didn’t aid their cause by seeing men sent off. In the case of Ipswich Town (and Hull City’s draw at Oxford United), there was a significant table advantage for the visitors.

Northampton Town 0-2 Doncaster Rovers — An 18th-minute red card for the hosts helped deny any home field advantage over 90 minutes.

Oxford United 1-1 Hull City — The U’s led 1-0 but gave up a late equalizer to the table-topping visitors.

Plymouth Argyle 1-2 Ipswich Town — The hosts led 1-0 but saw a man sent off in the 70th minute and conceded twice in the next four minutes.


League Two — Home teams 1W-4L

Oldham sprung a bit of a surprise on Cambridge United and Walsall also scored a minor upset at Tranmere Rovers, but the wins for visitors Salford City and Forest Green Rovers were over teams well below them on the table. Hosts Colchester United were expected to beat Grimsby Town, too.

Barrow 0-1 Salford City

Cambridge United 1-2 Oldham Athletic

Harrogate Town 0-1 Forest Green Rovers

Tranmere Rovers 1-3 Walsall

Colchester United 2-1 Grimsby Town

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Actors Reynolds, McElhenney bid to invest in Wrexham AFC

Wrexham AFC
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“The Gang Buys a Football Team?”

“It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia” actor Rob McElhenney and “Deadpool” star Ryan Reynolds are said to be in talks to buy National League side Wrexham AFC, reports The Guardian.

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The Welsh club, nicknamed the Red Dragons, was founded in 1864 and made it to the European Cup Winners’ Cup eight times between 1972-96.

They’ve since been relegated out of the Football League, dipping out of League Two in 2008.

McElhenney and Reynolds have bid to take over the club, and the Wrexham Supporters Trust says 97.5 percent of their members voted to allow the actors to propose their vision for the club before a second vote.

From wst.org.uk:

As a result, talks with the proposed bidders will now continue and we are in a position to confirm the two people interested in investing in Wrexham AFC.

Rob McElhenney is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter, best known as the creator of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Ryan Reynolds is an award-winning Canadian actor, writer, producer and business entrepreneur whose credits include Marvel’s Deadpool.

It’s gotta get McElhenney’s goat that Reynolds gets the “award-winning” adjective added to his name.

Either way, this is definitely an intriguing club for investment and the potential addition of Reynolds and McElhenney to the fray would only increase the interest in Wrexham AFC.

Deadpool and Mac would be quite a combo in the transfer market.

Fulham outlasts Cardiff to set up West London Derby playoff final

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It’s going to be aw West London Derby playoff promotion final after Cardiff City and Fulham staged a thrilling second leg at Craven Cottage on Thursday.

Brentford beat Swansea City in the other semifinal to set up

The Cottagers entered the match with a 2-0 advantage earned in Wales but Cardiff put the tie on its ear just two minutes after halftime of the second leg.

[ MORE: FA Cup Final preview ]

The match was 1-1 on goals from Fulham’s Neeskens Kebano and Cardiff’s Curtis Nielson when halftime sub Lee Tomlin cleaned up a back post mess to give the Bluebirds a second away goal to match Thursday’s hosts.

Fulham is bidding to make its absence from the Premier League a one-year problem, while Brentford has not played first-tier football since the 1946-47 season.