Cardiff City are claiming more than 120m from Nantes as compensation for the death of Emiliano Sala in a plane crash in 2019.
L’Equpe reports that the Welsh side, who play in the Sky Bet Championship after being relegated from the Premier League in 2019, have filed a claim with the Nantes Commercial Court seeking damages related to their relegation from the Premier League… which they make claim was partly due to Sala’s death.
The Welsh side base their claim for compensation on analysis by Analytics FC, an artificial intelligence company, which calculated that the Argentinian striker’s goals would have given them a 54.2% chance of avoiding relegation.
Analytics FC calculated with AI the expected goals and points gained if Sala had played for them during the second half of the season.
Legal and financial expert Maurice Nussenbaum estimated Cardiff City‘s financial loss from relegation and reputational damage at around 120 million.
For its part, Nantes has filed a counter-claim, which according to L’Equipe is based on “moral damage”, and demands that Cardiff be fined.
Chronology of the plane crash and death of Emiliano Sala
Cardiff City had agreed a deal worth more than 6.8 million with Nantes to sign Emiliano Sala from the French club, but the Piper Malibu plane carrying Sala to Wales to sign for the Welsh club crashed in the English Channel.
On 21 January, radar lost track of the plane Emiliano Sala was flying to Cardiff in the English Channel.
The private plane in which the striker was travelling lost track about 20 kilometres north of the English island of Guernsey.
On 30 January, possible wreckage of the aircraft was found and on 3 February the wreckage of the Piper PA-46 Malibu, registration N264DB, was located at the bottom of the English Channel.
On 4 February a body was located in the submerged plane, on 6 February it was recovered and on 7 February it was confirmed that the body was that of Emiliano Sala, who was buried on 16 February in the town of Progreso.