Cardiff Ordered To Pay Nantes €6M For Late Emiliano Sala

Cardiff City have been told by the FIFA Players' Status Committee to pay Nantes €6million for the late Emiliano Sala. (More Football News)

The striker became Cardiff's record signing when a deal was struck with the Ligue 1 club in January.

Also Read: Emiliano Sala Was Exposed To Carbon Monoxide Before Fatal Crash

But before he made an appearance for City, the plane carrying Sala from France to Wales crashed and he was killed, along with pilot David Ibbotson.

Cardiff claimed the agreement to pay Nantes a £15million fee was not legally binding because conditions insisted upon by Nantes were not fulfilled.

Also Read: It's A Bad Dream, Says Argentine Footballer Sala's Father After Plane Recovered

The club, who were relegated from the Premier League at the end of 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.

The FIFA Players' Status Committee said on Monday the €6m Nantes should receive from Cardiff is "corresponding to the first instalment due".

Also Read: Sala's Body Identified From Plane Wreckage

A statement read: "The FIFA Players' Status Committee, which never lost sight of the specific and unique circumstances of this tragic situation during its deliberations on the dispute at stake, refrained from imposing procedural costs on the parties.

"The findings of the decision were notified to the parties concerned today."

Nantes president Waldemar Kita told L'Equipe in May he did not want to receive money for Sala.

"The truth is, I don't even want that money, and I may never get it," he said.

"I don't want to make money on someone who died tragically. I'm not interested in that."

When asked why he had therefore not brought the issue to a halt, Kita replied: "I am not involved at all in the case. The lawyers are in charge of it."