FIFA order Cardiff City to pay Nantes the full €17m fee for Emiliano Sala transfer | OneFootball

FIFA have ordered Cardiff City to pay the full €17m transfer fee to FC Nantes for the signing of the late Argentine striker Emiliano Sala, according to a report from L’Équipe.

The Bluebirds have been engaged in a bitter feud with Les Canaris for more than four years over their obligation to pay the transfer fee of a player who never played for them. In January 2019, the plane carrying Sala to Cardiff from Nantes on his way to complete his transfer to the Welsh club crashed into the English Channel, near Guernsey.

Cardiff have already paid FC Nantes one-third of the instalments of the transfer. Now, FIFA have ordered to pay the last two instalments worth €11m. Cardiff have now filed a summons with the Nantes commercial court and are seeking €100m plus interest in compensation for “losses incurred“, as they believe Sala may have helped them avoid relegation to Championship.

Cardiff City have confirmed, in an official statement, the news reported by L’Équipe. Although the Welsh club mentions that FC Nantes General director Franck Kita, as well as two players agents heavily linked with the club’s transfer activity, have been lawfully charged on the counts of illegal exercise of sports agent activity, forgery and use of forgery, misuse of corporate assets, laundering of aggravated tax evasion and organised money laundering.

Cardiff City considers “it would have been fairer if the requirement to pay FC Nantes had been deferred until the conclusion of the French police investigations and the club’s claim against FC Nantes in the French courts.”

GFFN | Bastien Cheval