Emiliano Sala: Cardiff City settles High Court case with insurance broker over footballer's death

Cardiff announced the signing of Emiliano Sala on 19 January, 2019, two days before the plane he was on went missing

Cardiff City Football Club has reached a settlement with Miller Insurance Services LLP in a legal challenge surrounding the death of Emiliano Sala.

The financial terms of the High Court settlement have not been disclosed.

But the agreement will mean a cash input onto the Championship football club's balance sheet.

Cardiff were suing Miller for more than £10m alleging a "failure to act with the reasonable skill and care expected of an insurance broker".

Sala died in a plane crash over the English Channel on his way to Cardiff in January 2019 after completing a £15m transfer from French club Nantes.

A Cardiff statement read: "Cardiff City Football Club Limited and Miller Insurance Services LLP are pleased to confirm they have agreed terms to resolve CCFC's High Court claim in connection with the tragic death of Emiliano Sala, in January 2019.

"The terms of the settlement will remain confidential between the parties."

Cardiff had claimed Miller had failed to properly communicate the process for immediately insuring new players.

The club believed it was the broker's responsibility to tell Cardiff it would not be insured for a new player's death until its policy was amended to cover that new signing.

Club bosses said they would have requested £20m worth of coverage for Sala two days before the fatal crash if they had known.

The club said it was not told about the risks of not immediately notifying the insurance company about a new player following a transfer deal, or about how it could reduce or eliminate these risks.

Business flight organiser David Henderson hired an unqualified pilot, David Ibbotson, to fly the plane from Nantes to Cardiff Airport.

Henderson, of Hotham, East Riding of Yorkshire, was in November 2021 jailed for 18 months for recklessly endangering the safety of an aircraft and trying to arrange a flight for a passenger without permission or authorisation.

Mr Ibbotson's body has never been found.

In July 2023 Cardiff paid Nantes the remainder of the transfer fee owed on Sala after the club was ordered by world football's governing body Fifa to complete payments to selling club Nantes.