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The English second division club Cardiff City has transferred a first installment of the transfer fee for the deceased attacker Emiliano Sala to the French first division club Nantes, the French football club confirmed on Wednesday. It would be about 6 million euros, the amount owed would have risen to 8 million euros with interest, according to British media.
Jens JacobsBron: BELGIAN
The International Sports Tribunal TAS ruled in the summer of last year that Cardiff City must pay Nantes 6 million euros for Sala. Cardiff took over the Argentine striker from the French club in early 2019. On January 21, two days after signing his contract, 28-year-old Sala died in a plane crash on his way to Wales. The clubs tried to find a solution about the financial settlement in consultation, but were unable to do so, so Nantes took the matter to FIFA at the end of February 2019. The initial transfer amount was 17 million euros. The World Football Association had already ruled in Nantes’ favor, but the Welsh club appealed against it.
The verdict of the TAS only concerns the first tranche of 6 million euros of the total transfer fee of 17 million euros. The other installments had not yet been paid when FIFA handled the case. The TAS also confirmed that it was not for FIFA to deal with Cardiff’s claim that Nantes may have been partly responsible for Sala’s death. Nantes also filed a complaint with the local court. A court in Cardiff sentenced the intermediary who organized Sala’s flight to a year and a half in prison at the end of 2021.
© REUTERS
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