In January 2019, 28-year-old Emiliano Sala had returned home to France to say goodbye to his teammates in Ligue 1 club Nantes before leaving for the new club Cardiff, then in the Premier League.
The striker was Cardiff’s most expensive signing of all time, with a transfer fee of SEK 150 million, but on the way back to Wales, the plane in which he and pilot David Ibbotson were traveling crashed into the English Channel.
The search was completed days after the plane disappeared, but was resumed after thousands of private donations, including from football stars Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi.
In February, Sala’s body was found, but pilot David Ibbotson has not yet been found.
The British Accident Investigation Board later ruled that Ibbotson lacked the commercial license required to fly the plane and that he lost control after driving too fast in an attempt to avoid bad weather.
The investigation also showed that he was most likely affected by carbon monoxide poisoning.
A 66-year-old man, who arranged the flight, was named as responsible. The man was charged last year with endangering the safety of the aircraft, but denies the allegations.
The trial is set to begin today, Monday, in Cardiff.
Sala’s death led to a feud between the clubs over the transfer fee. The International Football Association, Fifa, has ordered Cardiff to make the first agreed payment to Nantes of the equivalent of SEK 63 million. But the Welsh club refuses to pay and has appealed to the sports arbitration court Cas. However, the investigation has been postponed due to the pandemic.
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