Cardiff will have to pay the whole of the transfer of Emiliano Sala to Nantes

Nantes wins the case. After a long legal and financial battle, Cardiff City will have to pay the Canaries the entire transfer of Emiliano Sala. Our colleagues from the team received confirmation from Fifa that the Welsh club had been ordered to pay the last two installments, i.e. 11 million euros cumulatively, out of the 17 million in total of the transfer amount, which it refused to pay.

“The club is thus confirmed in its rights. It hopes that after four years of proceedings, Cardiff City will finally respect its financial commitments and put an end to its procedural relentlessness. FC Nantes is eager to definitively close the legal aspect of this tragic accident”, reacted to the team the lawyers of FC Nantes, Jérôme Marsaudon and Louis-Marie Absil. Cardiff City also confirmed, via an official statement, that Fifa had “ordered to pay” the last two installments.

A long dispute between the two clubs

Since the disappearance of the Argentine striker in a plane crash en route to Wales to finalize his transfer on January 21, 2019, Cardiff City has refused to pay the amount agreed with Nantes. In September 2019, the Fifa Players’ Status Committee assured that the Welsh club had to pay the first of two installments, worth 6 million euros. The latter had appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), appeal rejected at the end of August 2022.

Another procedure opposes the two clubs, since in May 2023, more than four years after the death of the player, Nantes was also attacked before the commercial court by Cardiff, which claims financial compensation and “more than 100 million euros”.