The dispute between Cardiff City and Nantes took a new twist Thursday after the Welsh club appealed against the decision ordering it to pay six million euros ($6.65 million) for Emiliano Sala, the soccer player who died in a plane crash in January.
In a statement published on its website Thursday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said Cardiff was appealing the judgment of world football’s governing body FIFA, which ruled in September that it should pay six million euros, an amount which corresponds to the first installment that was due to be paid after the transfer had been agreed.
“Cardiff City FC seeks to have the (decision) set aside and requests the CAS to declare that no amount shall be payable by Cardiff City FC to FC Nantes,” said a CAS statement.
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CAS added that it expected a hearing to take place in spring 2020 with a decision not expected before June 2020.
Sala, who scored 42 goals for Nantes following his move from Bordeaux in 2015, had signed for Cardiff, then in the English Premier League, for a reported £15 million ($19.3 million).
READ: FIFA brought in over Sala transfer squabble
READ: Sala aircraft passed checks months before doomed flight
The 28-year-old was on his way to his new club having said goodbye to his teammates in France when the plane he was traveling in crashed into the English Channel.
Sala’s body was recovered from the plane’s wreckage on February 6 after a private search for the missing footballer and the pilot was commissioned by his family – financed by a crowdfunding campaign.
In August it was revealed that Sala and Ibbotson were both exposed to high levels of carbon monoxide inside the plane before the crash. Ibbotson’s body has still yet to be found.
Nantes told CNN Sport that it wouldn’t be commenting.a
