Analysts claim Sala could have saved Cardiff from relegation

Thursday 25 April 2024

More than five years after his tragic death, the legal rows over footballer Emiliano Sala's transfer from Nantes to Cardiff City show no signs of abating.

The Welsh football club is now claiming that the Argentine striker could have saved them from the perils of relegation.

The Daily Mail has reported that an analytics company calculated his goals could have kept them in the Premier League.

The Welsh club had bought the striker from Nantes for £15 million. 

However, Sala never made it to Cardiff after the plane he was in crashed while flying between the two cities. 

Cardiff resisted paying the full transfer fee for the footballer, as he never played for them. However, FIFA ruled the transfer had been completed and said the club must pay the full £15m.

Now, the Bluebirds are hoping to reclaim that money plus tens of millions of pounds extra, by pursuing a separate case through the French courts. 

The new £104m claim is to cover the losses the club say were incurred when they were relegated in 2019 – the same season Sala was due to join them. 

The Daily Mail reports that Nantes have launched a counter-claim, said to be based on "moral damage" caused by Cardiff City.

Pictured: Emiliano Sala died in January 2019. Pilot David Ibbotson has never been found after the plane the pair were in crashed in the Channel.

The Piper Malibu chartered to fly Sala from Nantes to Cardiff ditched in to the Channel near Alderney in January 2019.

While Sala's body was later found inside the wrecked plane, the pilot David Ibbotson has never been found.

The pilot and passenger were both overcome by carbon monoxide poisoning and the plane broke up as it crashed. 

An inquest, and Air Accident Investigation found that the footballer died of his injuries sustained in the plane crash, after he was rendered unconscious through inhaling large quantities of carbon monoxide.

David Henderson, who organised the flight and was originally intended to fly the plane, was found guilty of endangering the safety of an aircraft in October 2021, and jailed for 18 months.