Court dismisses Cardiff's compensation claim against Nantes over Emiliano Sala's death
發佈日期: 2026-03-30 23:39
TVB News
A commercial court in France dismissed Welsh club Cardiff's claims for compensation in the death of soccer player Emiliano Sala in a ruling issued Monday. This, more than seven years after the plane crash that killed the Argentine forward.
In a long-running legal dispute, Cardiff was seeking more than 120 million euros from Emiliano Sala's former team Nantes following a series of previous legal setbacks for the Welsh club.
Rulings by FIFA, the Court of Arbitration for Sport and Switzerland's supreme court have gone against Cardiff in its legal dispute with Nantes since Sala died in January 2019.
Sala was signed by Cardiff from Nantes for a club-record fee of 17 million euros as it tried to stave off relegation from the lucrative Premier League.
However, the single-engine Piper Malibu aircraft the Argentine player was traveling in from France to begin his career with Cardiff crashed into the sea near the Channel Island of Guernsey. The pilot, David Ibbotson, also died.
The court ruled that Nantes was not at fault in relation to the flight and that Cardiff did not suffer reputational damages.
It added Cardiff's "extravagant claims" had already been ruled on by other courts and that Nantes suffered moral damage.
It ordered Cardiff to pay 300,000 euros in damages, plus an additional 180,000 euros for legal costs.
After the crash, Cardiff disputed that the transfer deal with Nantes had been finalised.
FIFA ruled it had received the required international registration forms.
The businessman who organized the flight was found guilty of endangering the safety of an aircraft in 2021.
David Henderson, the aircraft operator who arranged the flight, had asked Ibbotson to fly the plane as he was away on holiday.
Ibbotson, who regularly flew for Henderson, did not hold a commercial pilot's license or a qualification to fly at night, and his rating to fly the Piper Malibu had expired.
