On January 21, 2019, the plane carrying Argentine striker Emiliano Sala from Nantes, France, to Cardiff, Wales, crashed into the English Channel near the island of Alderney. Sala had just signed for Cardiff City, who paid FC Nantes around 15 million pounds, the most expensive signing in the club’s history. The wreckage was found on February 3, and on February 7 police confirmed that the body recovered was the player’s. The pilot, David Ibbotson, also died.
After the confirmation, Electronic Arts, the company behind the FIFA series, published a statement: “It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Emiliano Sala”. It added: “To respect his legacy, we will implement the following changes:”
- Sala would be removed from the FC Nantes squad in FIFA 19;
- Sala’s Ultimate Team cards would no longer appear in packs;
- the prices of Sala’s cards in FUT would be kept at their value at that moment.
The decision followed a respectful logic: take the athlete out of the playable squads and the packs, without erasing the card from those who already had it, and without letting the Ultimate Team market speculate on the name of someone who had just died. At the time, the causes of the accident were still unknown.
What came next
The investigation by the UK air accidents body, the AAIB, concluded that the pilot lost control of the plane while manoeuvring to avoid cloud at excessive speed, causing the aircraft to break up in flight. Sala and the pilot were likely exposed to carbon monoxide, which left the player unconscious and impaired the pilot’s judgment. In October 2021, David Henderson, who organised the flight, was found guilty of endangering the safety of an aircraft.
Source: Electronic Arts, via Eurogamer.
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