The crowdfunding campaign was started on Friday
The family of missing Argentinian footballer Emiliano Sala have raised over €300,000 via crowfunding in order to resume the search for him and his pilot.
The Go Fund Me campaign was started on Friday, following Gurnsey Police’s decision to end the search.
Emiliano Sala had just moved from FC Nantes to Cardiff City when he went missing after a small aircraft he was on went down over the English Channel.
After an extensive search, Guernsey Police announced on Thursday that they had ‘taken the difficult decision to end the search’.
They did clarify, though, that: “Although we are no longer actively searching, the incident remains open and and we will be broadcasting to all vessels and aircraft in the area to keep a look out for any trace of the aircraft. This will continue indefinitely,” calling any chance of survival “extremely remote”.
Both Sala’s father and sister pleaded with the authorities to continue the search, as did FC Nantes.
The GoFundMe page, set up by ‘Sport Cover’, says: “This pot was created in the face of the urgency of the situation and the decision of the authorities not to continue the search. Its sole purpose, through a specialised non-profit organisation, is to help Emiliano’s family and pilot Dave Ibbotson. Thank you for donating the amount you want.”
Its name references the hashtag which has gained traction on social media: #NoDejenDeBuscar, which translates to ‘don’t stop searching.’
The donations have poured in, and among the donators are Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan, Valencia’s Geoffrey Kondogbia and Bayern Munich’s Clorentin Tolisso.
BREAKING: Emiliano Sala's family have just hit the €300k mark through crowdfunding that they needed to raise to begin the search for him and the pilot once more. Link here: https://t.co/Tw3bv6Zkwh
— Robin Bairner (@RBairner) January 27, 2019
