Death of footballer Emiliano Sala: Cardiff City estimates the damage at 120.2 million euros

The Cardiff City football club estimates its loss at 120.2 million euros in the dispute between it and FC Nantes since the death of Emiliano Sala in a plane crash in 2019, according to information from L’Equipe, confirmed by Céline Jones, the lawyer for the Cardiff club, to Agence France-Presse (AFP). This analysis must be formally filed on Monday April 22, during the afternoon, at the Nantes Commercial Court during a technical hearing which should set the timetable for the continuation of the procedure in this case.

Argentine striker Emiliano Sala died in January 2019, aged 28, in a plane crash over the English Channel while joining his new club, Cardiff City, to whom he had been sold by FC Nantes. He did not have time to play with the Welsh club.

A previous estimate of 100 million euros

Cardiff City believes that FC Nantes was responsible for the private flight on which the footballer took a seat and that the transfer was not effective at the time of the accident. The Welsh club therefore took action before the Nantes commercial court to claim compensation for loss of income and other damage suffered by the club due to the death of Emiliano Sala.

A previous estimate put these damages at €100 million, resulting in particular from the financial and reputational losses represented by Cardiff’s move from the First to the Second Division. “If Sala had been able to play, he would definitely have scored goals between January and June 2019 and Cardiff would have stayed in the Premier League. It would be unrealistic to think that he would not have scored any goals,” Mr. Jones argued during a hearing in June 2023.

Asked by AFP, FC Nantes lawyers did not react Monday morning. Last June, they denounced a “hard-line attitude in all its procedures” on the part of the Welsh club. In another procedure linked to the dispute between the two clubs, the FIFA Football Court ordered Cardiff City last year to pay FC Nantes the balance of the transfer of the Argentine player, at the time a little more than 11 million euros, out of a total of 17 million.