CARDIFF CITY ORDERED TO PROVIDE DOCUMENTS BY...

Following Emiliano Sala’s untimely death, Cardiff City FC has been asked to produce papers pertaining to a portion

of their €122 million claims for economic damages against FC Nantes. On January 21, 2019, the plane that was

transporting the Argentine striker from Nantes to Cardiff sadly crashed into the sea close to Guernsey.

Cardiff City FC thinks they would have remained in the Premier League had Sala not passed away, even though the

Championship team was demoted during the 2018–2019 campaign. After that, the Welsh team contacted Analytics

FC, a company that focusses on “football data science.” Cardiff City thinks it is possible to calculate the likelihood

that the team would have avoided relegation from the Championship by using Sala’s anticipated goals and the team’s

expected points.

Cardiff City then filed a €122 million lawsuit against FC Nantes for this loss of value and opportunity. Les Canaris is

still being billed by the Bluebirds for that sum. According to L’Equipe, the Nantes Commercial Court ordered the

Bluebirds to produce papers that were “useful to the dispute’s resolution” and related to a €6.8 million payout from

their insurance broker after Sala passed away.

But FC Nantes’ demands that Cardiff City provide papers about Analytics FC’s findings and the proceedings against

agent Willie McKay, who orchestrated Sala’s fateful flight, were rejected by the court. The Court further states that

the documents will only be considered “if the hypotheses, methods, and assumptions used are explicit, transparent,

and understandable.” The Nantes Commercial Court believes that FC Nantes does not have the right to “ask Cardiff

City FC for possibly insufficient evidence.”

Cardiff City FC is also required to furnish the necessary elements under financial compulsion (2,000 € per day of

delay under eight days) as mandated by the Nantes Commercial Court. FC Nantes advisors told L’Equipe that they

simply “executed their right to fairly fight Cardiff City’s delusional requests.”

CARDIFF CITY ORDERED TO PROVIDE DOCUMENTS BY NANTES COMMERCIAL COURT OVER DEATH OF EMILIANO SALA AND ‘DELUSIONAL’ €122M CLAIMS