Cardiff City have said reports that they are seeking £80million in compensation because the death of Emiliano Sala in January 2019 led to their relegation from the Premier League "can be wholly dismissed as false."
The Championship club are alleged to have claimed in a Court of Arbitration for Sport hearing last month that they are entitled to the compensation because Sala's death cost them their top-flight status, according to the author of a book on the tragic passing of the Argentinian striker in January 2019.
A written judgment on the two-day hearing will be published at an unspecified date in the summer. Should CAS rule against Cardiff, they could go on to explore a case through the French courts. But the club have now denied the report, made by Harry Harris, the author of The Truth — The Killing of Emiliano Sala.
"Cardiff City FC wish to clarify that there is no truth in today’s press stories relating to a compensation claim being made against FC Nantes," a spokesman said. "The suggestions that have been made can be wholly dismissed as false."
FIFA had ruled that Cardiff should pay Nantes the £15million transfer fee that had been agreed before Sala died when flying from France to South Wales on January 21 but the Bluebirds appealed that decision to the Switzerland-based CAS.
Cardiff's denied counterclaim was reportedly based around the cost of relegation, with the club arguing that Sala's addition to Neil Warnock's squad would have kept them in the top flight. City finished 18th place, three points off safety having lost nine and won three of their final 12 games.
It is claimed that they used the precedent of Sheffield United's case against West Ham United in relation to the signing of Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano in 2007 as precedent.
The South Wales club believe Nantes are responsible for Sala's passing because the agent Willie MacKay, who allegedly arranged the transport, was acting on their behalf. Cardiff argue that Sala was not yet their player, despite the transfer being announced two days previous, because the club had not yet received international clearance.
Last November the businessman who organised the flight, David Henderson, was jailed for 18 months for endangering the safety of an aircraft. He was convicted by a majority verdict of 10 to two at Cardiff Crown Court.
The plane's pilot David Ibbotson, who regularly worked for Henderson, did not hold a commercial licence and his rating to fly the single-engine Piper Malibu had expired. In February Dorset Coroner's Court heard that six months previously the owner of the aircraft had banned Mr Ibbotson from flying the plane after receiving two notices of airspace infringements from the Civil Aviation Authority.
