BREAKING NEWS: Cardiff to take FIFA´s Sala verdict to CAS

Cardiff City are to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after the FIFA Players’ Status Committee ruled they must pay Nantes €6million for the late Emiliano Sala.

The Championship club claim the verdict was reached “without considering the full documentation presented by Cardiff City FC to FIFA”.

Sala, Cardiff’s record signing, and pilot David Ibbotson died when their Piper Malibu aircraft crashed in January. The striker had accepted a move from Ligue 1 side Nantes but the Bluebirds claimed the agreement to pay Nantes a £15million fee was not legally binding because conditions insisted upon by Nantes were not fulfilled.

Cardiff, who were relegated from the Premier League last season, refused to make the first scheduled payment over what chairman Mehmet Dalman identified as “anomalies” in the deal, prompting Nantes to make a complaint to FIFA which culminated in Monday’s decision.

“Nevertheless there remains clear evidence that the transfer agreement was never completed in accordance with multiple contractual requirements which were requested by Nantes, thereby rendering it null and void,” read Cardiff’s statement.

“We shall be appealing to CAS in order to seek a decision which considers all of the relevant contractual information and provides clarity on the full legal situation between our two clubs.”