Cardiff told to pay FULL £15million for tragic Emiliano Sala after Fifa back French club Nantes

CARDIFF look set to be ordered to pay the FULL £15m fee for dead striker Emiliano Sala after Fifa backed French club Nantes.

In an interim judgement, following the two clubs’ failure to agree, Fifa ordered Cardiff to pay Nantes £5.3m.

But that represented just the initial claim by Nantes, which had been rejected by the Bluebirds.

And it has now emerged that Fifa are likely to find in favour of the French side over the next TWO instalments that would have been due over the three-year contract terms.

Cardiff agreed a £15m fee for the Argentine striker, 28, on January 19.

Sala was paraded at the City of Cardiff Stadium after completing the deal.

But just two days later, on his way back from a return visit to France, the plane carrying Sala ditched into the Channel.

The striker’s body was recovered after the plane was eventually located on February 3, 13 days after it had disappeared off air traffic control radar screens.

Toxicology tests suggested Sala and pilot David Ibbotson – whose body has never been found – had probably been rendered unconscious by carbon monoxide poisoning before the Piper Malibu craft ditched in the sea.

It later emerged that Ibbotson, did not have a licence to operate a commercial flight.

Cardiff had argued the transfer agreement was not valid because the Premier League had rejected some of the clauses Nantes had demanded were part of the original deal.

As Sala had not signed the revised contract, he was, the club maintained, therefore not registered as their player.

Nantes, in turn, demanded the full payment of the agreed fee.

Fifa President Gianni Infantino intervened and urged the clubs to find an agreement but with a deadline of September 5 before the matter was to be resolved by the world body’s player status committee.

That committee met in Zurich on Wednesday, with neither club represented in person.

Now Fifa has published the outcome with Nantes awarded £5.3m “corresponding to the first instalment due in accordance with the transfer agreement”.

Fifa insiders have confirmed that Nantes’ claims over the additional instalment will be heard in the future with the expectation that the French club’s case will be upheld.

Explaining the decision, Fifa stated the committee “never lost sight of the specific and unique circumstances of this tragic situation during its deliberations”.

Both clubs now have 10 days to request the written reasons and lodge an appeal to the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport.

That will give Cardiff a second opportunity to argue their case, this time to a panel of judges in Switzerland, but with the knowledge that Fifa have backed Nantes.