In January 2019, the Argentine footballer Emiliano Sala was signed by Cardiff from FC Nantes, but the Argentine tragically lost his life in a plane crash.
Five years after that tragic accident, the Welsh team claims the surreal figure of 120.2 million euros from the French team for “economic damages”, as revealed a few days ago by the French newspaper L’Equipe.
David Ibbotson, pilot of the plane taking Sala to England, told a friend that the plane was malfunctioning and that he would be wearing his life jacket on the flight.
As can be seen and despite the tragic outcome, the war between both clubs continues five years after the accident. The Welsh, who have been demanding compensation for several years, They have now presented the amount of 120.2 million euros before the Nantes Commercial Court, as revealed by the French newspaper.
According to information from L’Equipe, Cardiff turned to a company specialized in data science, “Analytics FC”, to determine the probability the Welsh club would have had of remaining in the Premier League with Sala. Assuming that Sala had played 60% of the games, the company estimated that Cardiff had a 54.2% chance of staying in the top category of English football, and they based themselves on that to claim that financial amount since the 120 million euros are also based on the club’s deficit between the 2018-2019 and 2022-2023 seasons, estimated at 52.9M euros, as well as the loss of value estimated at 67.3M euros. In addition, the Welsh club claims 2 million euros for “reputational damage.”
Given this decision by Cardiff, Nantes does not want to get carried away either and notes the “moral damage” of which it is a victim. It should be remembered that last May 2023, Cardiff claimed 110 million from Nantes for alleged damages suffered. A demand to which the French club did not respond.
The investigation concludes that Emiliano Sala’s plane flew too fast for its design
The light plane that was transporting the Argentine soccer player Emiliano Sala from France to Great Britain suffered its fatal accident because it was flying too fast for its characteristics and it also did not have the relevant license, as determined by the investigators’ report published this Friday.
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The device crashed into the sea in January 2019, causing the death of both the player, who was heading to Cardiff to sign for the Welsh club from Nantes, and the pilot David Ibbotson. The Air Accident Investigation Division (AAIB) noted in its conclusions that the pilot probably “lost control of the plane during a manual turn” while trying to pass through a strong storm.
“Subsequently, the aircraft suffered a breakup in mid-flight while maneuvering at an airspeed significantly higher than the maneuvering speed established by its design,” the authority said.
Football player Emiliano Sala suffered”severe carbon monoxide poisoning“that left him “unconscious” before the plane taking him to Cardiff crashed in the English Channel.
This is what Dr. Basil Purdue explained during the trial that was held at Bournemouth court to clarify all the events that occurred in January 2019 and that led to the death of Sala and pilot David Ibbotson.