Cardiff told to pay Nantes $6M for plane crash victim Sala

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — A years-long transfer dispute after the death in an airplane crash of soccer player Emiliano Sala was decided on Friday in favor of his former club Nantes against Cardiff.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport said it dismissed Cardiff’s appeal against a FIFA order that it must pay a first instalment of 6 million euros ($6 million) for Sala.

The 28-year-old forward from Argentina died before he could play for the Welsh club which later disputed that the transfer deal with the French club was finalized.

“The CAS Panel found the player’s transfer from FC Nantes to Cardiff City FC to have been completed,” the court said in a statement.

Cardiff was an English Premier League club in January 2019 when it agreed to pay a club record fee of 17 million euros ($17 million) for the 28-year-old Sala.

Sala was killed along with the pilot when the single-engine Piper Malibu aircraft carrying them from Nantes crashed into the sea near the Channel Island of Guernsey.

Hours earlier, FIFA had received an online document from the Wales Football Association to complete the transfer of the player’s registration from France.

The jury at an inquest in England in March decided Sala had been “deeply unconscious” due to being poisoned by exhaust fumes before dying from severe head and chest injuries. Carbon monoxide had spread inside the cabin due to the plane’s faulty exhaust system.

The pilot did not have the correct authority to fly at night. His body was never found.

CAS said its two-day hearing in the case held in March only concerned the first payment of the transfer.

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