More than three years after the death of Argentinian soccer professional Emiliano Sala, Cardiff City has to pay six million euros to his ex-club FC Nantes.
The International Court of Arbitration for Sports made a corresponding decision by the world association FIFA Lausanne confirmed in a judgment, the CAS announced. This puts the Welsh club out of the English second division Championship failed with his appeal against the FIFA decision of December 2019, according to which the first installment of six million euros had to be paid.
Sala died in plane crash
cardiff and nantes had agreed in January 2019 on a transfer fee of 17 million euros for Sala. The then 28-year-old crashed on a plane over the English Channel two days after the transfer was announced on January 21, 2019 and died on his way to Wales.
cardiff therefore did not feel obliged to give the money to FC nantes to pay because Sala was not yet registered with the association at the time of his death. From the perspective of cardiff the transfer contract was therefore not yet complete and therefore invalid. The CAS ultimately did not agree with this view. The panel is convinced that the transfer was fully completed by the time of Sala’s death.
A businessman who had organized the flight with the single-engine aircraft was subsequently sentenced to 18 months in prison for endangering the safety of an aircraft. The pilot, who also died in the crash, is said to have had neither a commercial nor a night flight license.