Cardiff City are seeking £80million in compensation from French club Nantes after claiming that Emiliano Sala’s death resulted in them being relegated from the Premier League, according to reports.
The Argentine was due to sign for Cardiff in January 2019 but died in a plane crash on his way to finalizing the transfer.
The club then went on to be relegated from the top-flight four months later, finishing two points behind 17th-placed Brighton, and the club’s manager at the time of Sala’s death, Neil Warnock, felt the striker’s goals could have kept them up.
The Welsh outfit are now pushing for £80m from Nantes, which they believe they lost in TV rights, advertising and sponsorship after dropping down to the Championship, as reported by The Sun.
The claim was published in a book that came out on Monday named ‘The Truth – The Killing of Emiliano Sala’.
It is understood that Cardiff made this claim in their Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) appeal hearing, which is reviewing whether the Championship club should pay Nantes £15m for Sala – the agreed fee between the clubs before he passed away.
Cardiff feel Nantes should be held accountable for Sala’s death as his agent Willie McKay arranged the plane on their behalf that subsequently crashed and killed the Argentine.
Cardiff have used the 2007 Carlos Tevez case as an example for their current stance.
Back then, West Ham were ruled to have broken third-party player ownership rules when signing Tevez and his international team-mate Javier Mascherano.
Tevez scored seven goals in the second half of the 2006-07 season to keep West Ham in the Premier League at Sheffield United’s expense.
Sheffield United wanted West Ham to be docked points, which would have allowed the Blades to stay in England’s top division.
However, they eventually settled on a compensation fee worth £26.5m. Cardiff are now seeking a much higher figure, which includes approximately £20m in parachute payments.
