Nantes have demanded part of the £15 million transfer fee from Cardiff City for Emiliano Sala, according to reports. The 28-year-old striker was on board the Piper Malibu N264DB plane which went missing over Guernsey on January 21. Wreckage of the aircraft which was carrying Sala and pilot David Ibbotson has been found at the bottom of the English Channel, while one body was discovered in footage obtained by an underwater camera.
Sala was signed by Cardiff City for a club-record fee on January 19, but according to the BBC, the Premier League club have withheld the first scheduled payment until they are ‘satisfied with the documentation’. The BBC also report that Nantes are threatening legal action if they do not receive the first payment from Cardiff in 10 days.
A source at Cardiff told the BBC that they are ‘surprised’ by Nantes’ request but will honour the contract they have with the French club when ‘all the facts’ have been clarified. Cardiff are due to pay the £15m fee to Nantes in installments over a three-year period. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) are currently trying to recover a body from the wreckage, although there is no confirmation whether the body identified is Sala’s. ‘Strong tidal conditions mean we can only use the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) for limited periods each day and this will mean that progress is slow,’ the AAIB confirmed on Tuesday.