Emiliano Sala: UK Club Ordered to Pay First Instalment of Fee For Player Killed in Plane Crash

Cardiff City, who were relegated from the Premier League in May partly due to a shortage of goals, have been ordered to pay six million euros (£5.3 million) for Argentinian striker Emiliano Sala.

The player vanished while flying back to Cardiff after a trip to France, where he had said goodbye to his team-mates.

Sala had signed a deal to join the Welsh club for £15 million and had been paraded in the team’s blue shirt but crucially he was not formally registered as a Cardiff player at the time of his death.

​The Bluebirds had therefore tried to wriggle out of paying French club Nantes the transfer fee.

But on Monday, 30 September, world football’s governing body FIFA ruled they should pay the first instalment of the transfer fee.

The exact circumstances of the player’s death have yet to be determined.

The plane he was in crashed in the Channel on 21 January and the body of the pilot, David Ibbotson, 59, has not been found.

Ibbotson was not qualified to fly the plane at night.

In August it was reported Sala had been exposed to high levels of carbon monoxide shortly before he died.

It is possible that the pilot could have been overcome by the same fumes and could have lost control of the plane, just north of Guernsey.

Sala had scored 42 goals in 120 games for Nantes and Cardiff manager Neil Warnock was hoping his goalscoring knack could help the club stay up.