Cardiff City say they are to sue Nantes for damages over the Emiliano Sala tragedy with immediate effect in a move set to run into multi-millions.
It comes after Swiss authorities ruled they were unable to overturn a decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport which had previously rejected Cardiff's appeal against FIFA's demand for the first instalment of the £15million Sala transfer fee to be paid.
Cardiff say the judgement by the Swiss Federal Tribunal is not an unexpected one, but they feel a need to go through the thorough legal process step by step. CAS are based in Lausanne and subject to Swiss law.
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The Swiss judges have deemed the Sala matter and who should compensate Cardiff for events which unfolded must be dealt with by the civil courts only.
The Bluebirds anticipated this ruling and have paperwork and documents ready to go as they move on to the next step of the legal process with a claim for damages.
This, we understand, could be for anything between £20m and £200m. The former figure would cover the transfer fee, while the much larger one presumably would be to cover monies Cardiff felt they could have received had Sala kept them in the Premier League.
Neil Warnock, the Bluebirds boss at the time, is adamant the Argentine striker signed for a club record fee would have scored the goals to keep the Bluebirds in the top flight, with the riches that could have come from that.
A Cardiff City statement for their official website reads: "The Swiss Federal Tribunal has decided that the Court of Arbitration in Sport doesn’t have jurisdiction to deal with Cardiff City’s claim for damages against FC Nantes.
"This isn’t a surprise, and the club has already prepared separate legal action against them which will be started straightaway as FC Nantes must be held responsible for the accident", which they go on to allege was "organised by their agent".
The statement concludes: "This will be to recover what the club paid for Emiliano and additional damages for further consequential losses."
Cardiff's statement is in connection with the private flight Sala had boarded to come to the UK from France, which ended in tragedy.
The damages move comes against the background of Cardiff being placed under a Football League embargo for not paying the first £5m-plus Sala instalment on time to Nantes. FIFA had demanded the money be paid, but lifted their own embargo once Cardiff owner Vincent Tan came up with the money.
However, the Football League insist their own three transfer window ban must remain in place, a situation the club are also fighting against.
It seems likely Cardiff will have to also pay the remaining instalments of the transfer fee and look to try to get the money back via the civil courts.
Cardiff chairman Mehmet Dalman has previously stated the club can't just drop the case, much as they would like to put it behind them, because there is a proper legal process to go through.
The Bluebirds have been placed in a desperately difficult situation over the tragedy, one which had a knock-on effect for what was a woeful 2022-23 season, but Tan personally feels his club have been wronged and appears determined to pursue Nantes for damages.
In the meantime, the Bluebirds are also suing Miller Insurances LLP, claiming the broker failed to properly communicate the process for immediately insuring new players.
The Bluebirds had previously said after the initial CAS ruling that it "fails to decide the crucial question of FC Nantes’ (and its agents’) liability for the crash, which will therefore have to be decided in another forum."
They had gone on to say that if appeals failed and they were liable to pay the transfer fee under football rules 'the club will take legal action against those responsible for the crash for damages to recover its losses. This will include FC Nantes, and its agents."
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