The Blue Birds had reached a £15 million (€17.4 million) agreement to acquire Sala from the French club. However, the Piper Malibu aircraft, with a single-piston engine, crashed while transporting Sala to Wales, off the coast of Alderney in the Channel Islands.

In the ongoing legal dispute between the two clubs concerning the tragic passing of the Argentinian striker, L'Equipe reports that Cardiff is seeking damages due to the relegation they experienced from the Premier League as a result. According to the French publication, the Blue Birds intend to submit the £104 million claim to the Nantes Commercial Court. 

This amount is derived from data analysis indicating that they had a 54.2 percent probability of avoiding relegation with Sala. The club sought assistance from Analytics FC, who computed the anticipated goals and points that would have been accrued had Sala played for them during the latter part of the season.

According to Cardiff's lawyer, Celine Jones, "an in-depth analysis" by a legal expert estimated the figure at the said amount. This analysis was submitted to the Nantes Commercial Court on Monday. The French club has until September 23 to respond to Cardiff's findings, as per Jones.

"We will carefully review these extensive documents and figures," stated lawyers representing Nantes, Jerome Marsaudon and Louis-Marie Absil, in comments to AFP. They referred to the "highly imaginative hypotheses" and "far-fetched" rationale presented in the submission. Nantes have since launched a counterclaim stating' moral damage'.

In 2019, Neil Warnock's Cardiff City team was relegated from the Premier League after finishing third from bottom, just two points away from safety. Although it remains uncertain whether Sala's contributions would have secured Cardiff's position in the league, his track record of scoring a goal every three games for Nantes in the French league suggests he would have made a significant impact in the Premier League.

Initially, Cardiff contested with FIFA that Sala wasn't officially registered as their player at the time of the plane crash, thus they were not obligated to pay the £15 million transfer fee. Consequently, they withheld the initial £5 million installment due to Nantes.

However, FIFA ruled that the transfer had indeed been finalised and imposed a transfer embargo on Cardiff due to non-payment. This embargo was only lifted in January after owner Vincent Tan settled the full amount owed to Nantes last July, following Cardiff's unsuccessful attempts to appeal FIFA's decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Now, his side aims to recoup the £15 million fee, plus additional compensation, by pursuing the case through the French legal system.

"I am very angry. We have no choice, we will not stop," Tan previously told L'Equipe. "We were never able to use the very promising player that we had bought. Emiliano Sala could have scored the few goals that would have saved us from demotion to the Championship.

"This resulted in a loss of £100m, at least, for the club. With Sala, we could have been maintained [as a top-flight club]. He didn't play a single game for us. Why should we pay for his entire transfer? FC Nantes must be punished."