August 5 – The unsavoury dispute over who was liable for Emiliano Sala’s €17 million transfer fee from Nantes to Cardiff City is set to drag on more than a year and half after the Argentine forward was tragically killed when the light aircraft carrying him to Cardiff two days after he signed crashed into the sea before he could play a single game.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) says Cardiff’s appeal against a transfer ban for failing to pay the first instalment of fee to Nantes has been delayed a second time.
FIFA ordered Cardiff last October to pay an initial €6 million after the two clubs failed to agree over the time line.
Cardiff have long argued they were not liable for any of the fee since Sala was not officially their player when he died as his playing registration was not complete and therefore the transfer was null and void. The case ended up at the door of FIFA’s players’ status committee which sided with Nantes, ruling Cardiff faced a three-window transfer ban if they didn’t comply.
Cardiff appealed that decision which was originally due to be heard by CAS this spring.
“The parties to the procedure have agreed to lengthen the regular time limits for the filing of the written submissions,” CAS told BBC. “It is for this reason the exchanges of written submissions is still ongoing and a hearing date has not yet been set.”
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