Cardiff City lose £100m court claim over Emiliano Sala death

A commercial court in France has dismissed Cardiff’s claim for more than £100m compensation after the death of Emiliano Sala. Seven years after the plane crash that killed Sala, Cardiff were seeking €122m (£106m) for loss of income and other damages from the player’s former team Nantes.

Rulings by Fifa, the court of arbitration for sport and Switzerland’s supreme court have gone against Cardiff in their legal dispute with Nantes since Sala died in January 2019.

The 28-year-old was signed by Cardiff from Nantes for a club-record fee of £15m as they tried to stave off relegation from the Premier League. The single-engine Piper Malibu aircraft in which the Argentinian was travelling from France to begin his career with Cardiff crashed into the sea near Guernsey. The pilot, David Ibbotson, also died.

The court ruled Nantes were not at fault in relation to the flight and that Cardiff did not sustain reputational damages. It added that Nantes sustained moral damage and ordered Cardiff to pay €300,000.

Cardiff estimated their losses at €122m after an analysis conducted by an expert appointed by the club. Their contention was that Nantes were responsible because the flight was organised by an intermediary, Willie McKay, enlisted by the French club. The court found that McKay served as an agent for Nantes, but that he did not organise the flight and was not aware of the illegality of the flight.

“It’s difficult to understand how the court considers that Willie McKay did not organise the flight, given that he himself said that he did,” Céline Jones, a lawyer for Cardiff, said.

Jones also said to reporters: “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. Today, we bitterly observe that the principles of transparency, integrity, and safety in professional football have not prevailed in this decision.”

Nantes, struggling in the Ligue 1 relegation zone, welcomed the decision. “Nantes are in no way responsible for the incident that occurred,” the club’s lawyer, Jérôme Marsaudon, said. “We are pleased the court listened to us and confirmed this in clear terms.”

In 2022, Cas ruled that Sala’s transfer had definitely been finalised at the time of his death. The following year, Fifa ordered Cardiff to pay Nantes the balance of Sala’s transfer fee, which amounted to just over €11m out of a total of €17m.