Transfer from Sala: Fifa orders Cardiff to pay € 6 million to Nantes

FIFA on Monday ordered the Welsh club Cardiff to pay FC Nantes 6 17 million euros for the transfer of Argentinean player Emiliano Sala, who died on 21 January with the pilot of the plane who was transporting them to his new club. After the disappearance of the player, Cardiff had decided not to honor a first payment of 6 million euros out of 17 of the total amount of the transfer, whereas it had been validated by the football authorities before the accident. Nantes had seized Fifa at the end of February to claim the full payment of the transfer. Both clubs may appeal this decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) which is based in Lausanne.

Six million euros corresponding to the first payment of the transfer

The Fifa Player Status Commission, chaired by South African Raymond Hack, met on Wednesday but only notified the decision on Monday to both clubs. This commission ruled that Cardiff had to pay FC Nantes "the sum of 6 million euros, corresponding to the first payment due under the agreement reached between the parties on 19 January 2019" for the transfer of Sala. In its deliberations, the commission took into consideration "the tragic and unique circumstances surrounding the dispute, deciding in particular not to claim procedural costs from the parties," said Fifa in its statement. At the end of August, Fifa sent the two clubs a letter in which it advocated a conciliation for the payment of the transfer of the Argentine footballer. Without the clubs' agreement, the file was therefore submitted to the commission of the status of the player who decided.

At the beginning of February, after long unsuccessful searches, Emiliano Sala's body was finally recovered in the wreck of the small plane and formally identified. The wreck of the single-engine Piper Malibu, who was driving the 59-year-old driver and the 28-year-old former Nantes striker to his new club in Cardiff, was located at the spot where the plane was ceased broadcasting in the Channel, lying 67.7 meters deep, about 20 kilometers north of the Anglo-Norman island of Guernsey.