February 28 – Amidst the global outpouring of sympathy and grief over the untimely death of Emiliano Sala, the player’s transfer fee is hanging over the tragedy with FIFA now investigating after Nantes made a claim against Cardiff City.
Cardiff were due to pay the first of three instalments for the late £15 million striker, who never got to play for them after dying in a plane crash in the English Channel on 21 January, on Wednesday.
Since Sala’s move was an international transfer, it had to go through FIFA’s mandatory system.
“We can confirm we have received a claim. We are looking into the matter,” said a FIFA spokesman.
Cardiff were originally due to make the first of three instalments on February 20 but agreed with Nantes to extend the deadline by a week. Having received no payment, Nantes carried out their threat to take the matter to FIFA’s dispute resolution chamber.
A Cardiff spokesman said: “Cardiff City remains committed to ensuring fairness and accountability with respect to the agreement between Cardiff City and FC Nantes, but first and foremost the relevant authorities must be allowed to determine the facts surrounding this tragedy. It is inappropriate to comment further at this stage.”
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