Le tribunal de commerce de Nantes rejette la demande de Cardiff liée à Emiliano Sala

A French commercial court dismissed Cardiff City's €120.2 million compensation claim against FC Nantes on Monday, ruling that the French club bore no responsibility for the 2019 plane crash that killed Argentine striker Emiliano Sala. The Tribunal de commerce de Nantes instead ordered Cardiff to pay FC Nantes €480,000, divided into €300,000 for moral damages and €180,000 in legal fees. The ruling ends a legal dispute that Cardiff initiated in 2023, more than four years after Sala's death on January 21, 2019. The Welsh club had argued that Nantes was negligent in organizing the fatal flight and that the striker's absence directly caused their relegation from the Premier League that season.

Argument de Cardiff sur la relégation rejeté par les juges français Cardiff's claim rested on a calculation using a points scale and expected goals, through which the club estimated that Sala's absence contributed to their relegation from the Premier League at the end of the 2018-19 season, when they finished 18th. The club argued that the resulting drop in revenues and club value amounted to losses exceeding €120 million. An expert appointed by Cardiff presented these figures to the court during hearings in December 2025, factoring in the relegation and subsequent financial decline. Nantes' lawyers dismissed those figures as "ghosts" and demanded approximately one million euros in return. The court awarded Nantes just under half of that amount. Cardiff also failed to persuade the court that Nantes bore responsibility through its use of Scottish football agent Willie McKay, who organized the private flight. The court found no direct link between the French club and the circumstances of the crash.

„Je suis très satisfait de la décision du tribunal, qui ne fait que confirmer ce que nous soutenions depuis des années. Le tribunal l’a dit de manière très claire et a condamné Cardiff à verser des dommages et intérêts d’un montant tout à fait significatif. Nantes n’est en rien responsable de la tragédie survenue, et le club se félicite que la juridiction ait entendu nos arguments et les ait confirmés sans ambiguïté.” — Jerome Marsaudon via The Athletic

Le pilote n’avait pas de licences pour le commercial ni pour le vol de nuit, selon le tribunal Sala was 28 years old when the Piper Malibu aircraft crashed into the English Channel on January 21, 2019, while he was traveling from Nantes to Cardiff for his first training session with his new club. Cardiff had agreed to pay Nantes €17 million for the striker in a club-record deal. Pilot David Ibbotson, 59, also died in the crash; his body was never recovered. According to reporting cited by Der Tagesspiegel, the pilot held neither a license for commercial flights nor for night flights, and was reportedly aware of technical defects in the aircraft. The businessman who organized the flight had previously been sentenced to an 18-month prison term in the United Kingdom for endangering the safety of an aircraft. Sala's mother, Mercedes Taffarel, was present at the December hearing in Nantes.

„Nous regrettons profondément que le tribunal n’ait pas reconnu la responsabilité de Nantes dans cette tragédie. Nous avons engagé cette procédure afin que la vérité complète de cette affaire puisse être établie, dans le respect de la mémoire d’Emiliano Sala.” — Cardiff City legal team via The Athletic

Le contentieux entre Cardiff City et FC Nantes a connu plusieurs étapes avant la décision de lundi. Après la mort de Sala, Cardiff a d’abord refusé de verser les 17 millions d’euros de l’indemnité de transfert à Nantes. La FIFA et la Cour d'arbitrage du sport ont toutes deux donné raison à Nantes, estimant que le transfert avait été juridiquement conclu au moment du crash. Cardiff a ensuite versé au moins environ la moitié de l’indemnité de transfert. Une décision du TAS en 2022 a confirmé la validité du transfert, déplaçant le débat juridique vers la question de l’organisation du vol et de la négligence, que Cardiff a portée devant le Tribunal de commerce de Nantes à partir de 2023.

Cardiff est désormais en League One, sept ans après la mort de Sala The ruling lands at a difficult moment for Cardiff City, who currently compete in EFL League One, the third tier of English football, in the 2025-26 season — a significant fall from the Premier League status they held at the time of Sala's death. The club's legal team stated they initiated proceedings to bring the full truth of the case to light in respect of Sala's memory. McKay denied acting as an agent in the Sala transfer, telling The Times he was "working with my son ... helping my son." Nantes' lawyer Marsaudon said the club wished to "finally bring this matter to a close so that everyone can move on." Cardiff retain the right to appeal the ruling, though no such announcement had been made as of Monday.

Issue financière de la décision du Tribunal de commerce de Nantes: Demande d'indemnisation de Cardiff (before: 120,2 millions d'euros réclamés à Nantes, after: Demande entièrement rejetée); Somme à verser (before: Cardiff demandait des dommages et intérêts à Nantes, after: Cardiff condamné à verser 480 000 euros à Nantes); Composante du préjudice moral (before: Cardiff soutenait que Nantes était responsable, after: 300 000 euros accordés à Nantes au titre du préjudice moral); Composante des frais de justice (before: Cardiff demandait la prise en charge des frais de justice, after: Cardiff condamné à payer 180 000 euros de frais de justice à Nantes)