Ruling on Cardiff's Sala court case against Nantes due in March

A French court examining a dispute over footballer Emiliano Sala's death in a plane crash nearly seven years ago is to give its decision in March next year.

A commercial court in Nantes in western France said the decision on the dispute between Cardiff City Football Club and Football Club de Nantes would be made at a hearing on 30 March.

Cardiff City has claimed losses of more than 120m euros (£104m) in relation to Sala's death in January 2019, claiming the striker could have kept the club in the Premier League.

Just days before his death he had been announced as Cardiff's record signing after agreeing a £15m deal to join the then-Premier League side from Nantes.

Lawyers for both clubs made their cases at the hearing earlier.

Sala, a 28-year-old Argentine striker, died when the light aircraft taking him to Cardiff came down in the English Channel on 21 January 2019. Pilot David Ibbotson was also killed.

The Welsh club took the case to the Nantes commercial court in 2023 to claim compensation for loss of income and other damages suffered as a result of the player's death.

The club has argued that Nantes, through its intermediary, agent Willie McKay, was the organiser of the private flight on which Sala was travelling and that, if the transfer was effective at the time of the accident according to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), it is the organisation of this flight that is at issue.

Cardiff City's lawyer, Olivier Loizon, told the court Mr McKay "could not have been unaware of the illegality of the flight" and argued that the agent had acted with "negligence".

"Whatever the ultimate cause of the accident, [Sala] should not have been on the flight," he added.

Nantes' lawyer, Jerome Marsaudon, said the only agent authorised by the club in connection with the transfer was Mark McKay, the son of Willie McKay.

Willie McKay "was simply helping his son, given his extensive experience", he said.

"It is sad to see that Cardiff have exploited this tragedy and turned it into a genuine legal farce," Mr Marsaudon added.

"Nothing in this case justifies holding FC Nantes liable."

Cardiff City estimated its losses at more than 120m euros (£104m), following an analysis conducted by an expert appointed by the club.

Nantes disputed "the existence of any wrongdoing, a causal link between the hypothetical wrongdoing and the damages, and then the damages themselves", a representative of club president Waldemar Kita said before the hearing.

In another case related to the dispute between the two clubs, CAS ruled in 2022 that Sala's transfer had definitely been finalised at the time of his death.

In 2023, world football's governing body FIFA ordered Cardiff City to pay Nantes the balance of Sala's transfer fee, which at the time amounted to just over 11m euros out of a total of 17m euros.