Cardiff City sues insurance broker for £10 million over death of Emiliano Sala

A tribute to Emiliano Sala
Sala was on board an unlicensed commercial flight from France travelling to join his new club when the plane crashed. Credit: PA

Cardiff City Football Club is suing an insurance broker for £10 million over the death of footballer Emiliano Sala.

Club bosses are suing Miller Insurance Services LLP for its "failure to act with the reasonable skill and care expected of an insurance broker."

The footballer died when his plane crashed into the English Channel on his way to Cardiff in January 2019.

Many people paid tribute to Sala outside Cardiff City Stadium when news of the plane crash spread in January 2019. Credit: Ben Birchall/PA

Cardiff are seeking damages of more than £10million in a legal fight with the brokers over the late 24-year-old.

The football club claim the insurance broker failed to communicate that not informing it of new players to be added to the club's policy would risk it not having coverage for those players.

They claim it was the broker's responsibility to communicate that this would mean the club would not be insured for a player's death until its policy was amended.

Club bosses say they would have requested £20 million coverage for Sala two days before the fatal plane crash if they had known.

The wreckage of the plane after it was discovered in the English Channel Credit: AAIB/PA

Cardiff City's claim says Miller Insurance failed to properly explain the concept of an "insurable interest" for football player transfers and the requirement of a "prompt" notification of the transfer in order to secure cover.

It says the broker also did not let the club know about the risks of delaying this notification of an interest or the steps that might be taken to reduce or eliminate the risks.

Argentine striker Sala was on board an unlicensed commercial flight from France travelling to join his new club when the plane crashed.

Business flight organiser David Henderson, 67, hired an unqualified pilot David Ibbotson to fly the plane from Nantes to Cardiff airport.

An inquest into Sala's death, which concluded earlier this year, found he had died of head and chest injuries but would have been unconscious at the time of the crash due to carbon monoxide poisoning.

The claim comes after Henderson was sentenced to 18 months behind bars last year for endangering an aircraft after organising the flight.

Sala’s body was recovered following the crash but the pilot's was not.