French Court Rejects Cardiff City's €120 Million Compensation Claim Against FC Nantes

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 Nantes Commercial Court 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.

Cardiff's relegation argument rejected by French judges 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.

„I am very pleased with the court's decision, which only confirms what we have been asserting for years. The court stated this loud and clear and ordered Cardiff to pay fairly significant damages. Nantes is in no way responsible for the tragedy that occurred, and the club welcomes the fact that the court heard our arguments and confirmed them in clear terms.” — Jerome Marsaudon via The Athletic

Pilot lacked commercial and night-flight licenses, court heard 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.

„We deeply regret that the court did not recognise Nantes' liability in this tragedy. We initiated these proceedings so that the full truth of this case could come to light, in respect of Emiliano Sala's memory.” — Cardiff City legal team via The Athletic

The legal dispute between Cardiff City and FC Nantes had multiple stages before Monday's ruling. Following Sala's death, Cardiff initially refused to pay the €17 million transfer fee to Nantes. Both FIFA and the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled in favor of Nantes, determining that the transfer had been legally completed at the time of the crash. Cardiff subsequently paid at least approximately half of the transfer fee. A 2022 CAS decision confirmed the transfer's validity, shifting the legal focus to the question of flight organization and negligence, which Cardiff pursued through the Nantes Commercial Court from 2023 onward.

Cardiff now in League One, seven years after Sala's death 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.

Financial outcome of Nantes Commercial Court ruling: Cardiff's compensation claim (before: €120.2 million sought from Nantes, after: Claim dismissed entirely); Payment ordered (before: Cardiff sought damages from Nantes, after: Cardiff ordered to pay Nantes €480,000); Moral damages component (before: Cardiff argued Nantes liable, after: €300,000 awarded to Nantes for moral damages); Legal fees component (before: Cardiff sought legal costs covered, after: Cardiff ordered to pay €180,000 in Nantes legal fees)