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Here We go again:Cardiff ready to sue Nantes for up to £200m

Tue May 09, 2023 11:18 am

Cardiff City ready to sue Nantes for up to £200million in damages over Emiliano Sala tragedy as Swiss court make ruling:

its not good news, its not unexpected news as Cardiff were never going to get it over turned by previous court rulings.

So Tan now says they will go through the Civil Court as they have been told their only routes now are civil action.

More costs occurred and more to come.


The Swiss Federal tribunal has upheld a CAS decision over Sala:




https://www.cardiffcityforum.co.uk/view ... 2&t=204226


The Swiss Federal tribunal has upheld a CAS decision over Sala and the Bluebirds, who anticipated the ruling, are moving to the next step of the legal process

https://www.cardiffcityforum.co.uk/view ... 2&t=204226

SPORT

Tuesday 9th May 2023


By Paul Abbandonato


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.

Cardiff have so far had three different courts decide against them.


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 organised by their agent.

"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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Re: Here We go again:Cardiff ready to sue Nantes for up to £

Tue May 09, 2023 11:45 am

Here we go again

Re: Here We go again:Cardiff ready to sue Nantes for up to £

Tue May 09, 2023 11:47 am

Disgusting, every court case disrespects Sala and his memory.

Re: Here We go again:Cardiff ready to sue Nantes for up to £

Tue May 09, 2023 11:48 am

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Tue May 09, 2023 11:52 am

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Tue May 09, 2023 11:53 am

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Tue May 09, 2023 11:53 am

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Tue May 09, 2023 11:54 am

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Tue May 09, 2023 11:56 am

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Tue May 09, 2023 11:57 am

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Re: Here We go again:Cardiff ready to sue Nantes for up to £

Tue May 09, 2023 11:59 am

This court case I agree with. He's right in what he saying, someone is at fault for it and shouldn't get away with it being our cost.

Although he needs to stick by the agreement of the deal. It needs to be paid.

They are two separate issues legally.

Re: Here We go again:Cardiff ready to sue Nantes for up to £

Tue May 09, 2023 12:11 pm

bluebird7291 wrote:This court case I agree with. He's right in what he saying, someone is at fault for it and shouldn't get away with it being our cost.

Although he needs to stick by the agreement of the deal. It needs to be paid.

They are two separate issues legally.


Paying the fee would be considered an admission of guilt so therefore the case could be over before it started.

I would like to know what arguments the club will use but no one will find that out until the club claim is put forward.

Also what is the argument against the broker and how solid is it?

Re: Here We go again:Cardiff ready to sue Nantes for up to £

Tue May 09, 2023 12:31 pm

This is not good news once again.

As they have denied Tans appeal and upheld the previous verdicts against Tan & Co and said we can now only go down the Civil route which will be costly and unlikely we will win.

Re: Here We go again:Cardiff ready to sue Nantes for up to £

Tue May 09, 2023 12:46 pm

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Tue May 09, 2023 12:47 pm

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Re: Here We go again:Cardiff ready to sue Nantes for up to £

Tue May 09, 2023 12:54 pm

I am not surprised by this, i think it was trailed back in January as the likely course that would be taken.

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Tue May 09, 2023 12:55 pm

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Tue May 09, 2023 12:55 pm

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Tue May 09, 2023 12:56 pm

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Re: Here We go again:Cardiff ready to sue Nantes for up to £

Tue May 09, 2023 12:59 pm

We are exactly where we should be in this whole matter.

The club Had TO go through many courts in order for the opportunity to go after those responsible for any loss the club has seen.

What a waste of time and money just to find out the sporting bodies had no say in this matter and could only judge on the footballing and sports matters. But this process had to happen.

The club are now in the position, to seek remuneration from those at fault.

The question now is can Cardiff convince a French Court that there was involvement from FC Nantes. If they cannot then anyone else who can be held accountable are unlikely to have the funds to pay any money.

David Henderson is serving time for reckless endangerment.

Not sure if this civil case will freeze any further payments to Nantes and temporarily lift the embargo. Possibly clutching at straws here.

Re: Here We go again:Cardiff ready to sue Nantes for up to £

Tue May 09, 2023 1:06 pm

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Tue May 09, 2023 1:06 pm

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Tue May 09, 2023 1:07 pm

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Re: Here We go again:Cardiff ready to sue Nantes for up to £

Tue May 09, 2023 1:16 pm

We should pay our bill then go to court, 100% Cardiff shoulder go after who ever arranged and who is connected to the agent

Re: Here We go again:Cardiff ready to sue Nantes for up to £

Tue May 09, 2023 1:20 pm

Logie wrote:We should pay our bill then go to court, 100% Cardiff shoulder go after who ever arranged and who is connected to the agent


Absolutely this.

The more I think about it, the more I believe that paying the transfer fee has NO bearing on the club accepting responsibility for their financial loss.

But depends if the French Court thinks the same.

Re: Here We go again:Cardiff ready to sue Nantes for up to £

Tue May 09, 2023 1:31 pm

Sala was our player so Nantes aren't responsible.

Emiliano went back to France on his own accord to say goodbye to the players there at Nantes , sort out his dog coming over to Cardiff.

We originally sued saying that he was not our player that was beyond a joke.

The agents are worthless.

We owe the money, we forgot to insure Sala.

We are spending £millions fighting, trying to blame everyone else.

We are under an Embargo because of these clowns.

We just had to hand over an extra £2mill in fines, interest , costs etc

We now still owe £10mill plus more fines, interest, costs etc

We spend nothing on our team and the club is suffering badly.


I will state now we will lose a civil case as well and more debts to us.

Re: Here We go again:Cardiff ready to sue Nantes for up to £

Tue May 09, 2023 1:32 pm

Wayne S wrote:
Logie wrote:We should pay our bill then go to court, 100% Cardiff shoulder go after who ever arranged and who is connected to the agent


Absolutely this.

The more I think about it, the more I believe that paying the transfer fee has NO bearing on the club accepting responsibility for their financial loss.

But depends if the French Court thinks the same.


Only problem is that it’s a huge risk. Can’t just magically take back the payment if the courts then deem that paying it is taking financial responsibility for the loss.

Don’t really think it’s fair for the club’s name to be dragged through the mud as it has been despite the action we’ve taken, as I’m pretty sure pretty much every football club in the world would be taking our approach if they ended up in this terrible and unique situation.

I also wish l people would stop using it to further their agendas against Tan for the reasons I give above. Criticise him for lack of investment, lack of communication, shambolic managerial appointments, a shambolic leadership team etc, but this is separate from that as like I said it’s the approach I’m fairly certain every single club worldwide would take, and it’s unfortunate that it’s had to be taken by Cardiff City.

It’s disheartening to see fans of other clubs going around further spreading misinformation that this is somehow city’s fault because “even Cardiff fans are disgusted by their club” etc.

Most people I’ve spoken to who aren’t attached to the online discourse want the club to pursue losses, well back to my first point there’s a big risk that paying up “early” destroys any chance of that happening.

Re: Here We go again:Cardiff ready to sue Nantes for up to £

Tue May 09, 2023 1:47 pm

Logie wrote:We should pay our bill then go to court, 100% Cardiff shoulder go after who ever arranged and who is connected to the agent



I agree although we have contractual arrangement with the agent with regards to this transfer. Our only contract is with Nantes, who " contract " the agent, who arranges the flight, possibly without Nantes even knowing. Had be dealt with the flight then no case. Had Sala arranged / paid it privately with Mackay then no case. I think it centres on who arranged and paid for the flight and if that's Nantes, albeit unknowingly, then we may have a case. As ever nothing in law is ever that simple, Mackays lad on our pay roll and playing a part in the arrangements could muddy the water. The fact he was at Cardiff when it was probably arranged, could also be an issue. Lets be honest Sala probably didn't know who was organising it. Winning it France will be difficult to say the least. It has nothing to do with the previous cases, we could still be doing this even those had gone in our favour.

Re: Here We go again:Cardiff ready to sue Nantes for up to £

Tue May 09, 2023 2:05 pm

From what I can see, this is just more time being wasted on yet another court case that is unlikely to be successful.

Obviously the fact that we still won't be paying Nantes the remaining installments.

The club say we are still under an embargo so new signings apart from free transfers and free loans (little quality).

So I can imagine when this is all put to Lamouchi in his meeting with Tan today, he will probably decide to leave. Not sure anyone would blame him.

We'll end up with another unqualified manager like Morison/Hudson but this time will inevitably be relegated.

All this because our owner has some sort of obsession with court cases, especially losing them it seems.

Re: Here We go again:Cardiff ready to sue Nantes for up to £

Tue May 09, 2023 2:05 pm

I think the more important, immediate, conversation is in the Swiss Fed Court strand topic.