Cardiff Loses €122m Compensation Case Over Emiliano Sala’s death

A French court on Monday dismissed Cardiff City’s compensation claim valued at €122 million, in a financial dispute with Ligue 1 club Nantes over the 2019 death of Argentine striker Emiliano Sala.

The Welsh club took the case to the Nantes commercial court in 2023 for loss of income and other damages suffered by Cardiff as a result of the player’s death.

Monday’s ruling ordered Cardiff to pay Nantes €300 000 in moral damages.

Sala, a 28-year-old forward, died when the light aircraft taking him to the Welsh capital came down in the English Channel on January 21, 2019, two days after he had signed for the then-Premier League side.

He and pilot David Ibbotson were killed.

Following an analysis conducted by an expert appointed by Cardiff City, the club estimated their losses at €122 million.

Since Sala’s death Cardiff have been relegated from the Premier League. They currently play in English football’s third tier.

“We initiated this process so that the full truth would come to light in this case and out of respect for the memory of Emiliano Sala,” Cardiff’s lawyer Celine Jones told reporters after the verdict.

“Today, we bitterly observe that the principles of transparency, integrity, and safety in professional football have not prevailed in this decision,” she added.

Nantes, struggling in the Ligue 1 relegation zone this season, welcomed the decision.

“Nantes are in no way responsible for the incident that occurred,” said club lawyer Jerome Marsaudon said.

“We are pleased the court listened to us and confirmed this in clear terms.”

Cardiff argued that Nantes, through their intermediary, agent Willie McKay, were the organisers of the private flight on which the footballer was travelling and that, if the transfer was effective at the time of the accident according to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), it is the organisation of this flight that was at issue.

In 2022, CAS ruled that Sala’s transfer had definitely been finalised at the time of his death.

The following year, world football’s governing body FIFA ordered Cardiff to pay Nantes the balance of Sala’s transfer fee, which at the time amounted to just over €11 million out of a total of €17 million.