Cardiff City have been punished with a transfer embargo after they failed to pay the first installment of Emiliano Sala’s transfer fee.
The striker died tragically in a plane crash on his way to Cardiff after completing his move to the Welsh club. And soon after his death, things got ugly between Cardiff and Nantes after the Bluebirds refused to pay the first installment of his fee.
FIFA got involved and Cardiff lost their appeal and were ordered by FIFA to make the initial payment of £5.3m but the club continues to contest the ruling.
The club has now confirmed that they have been handed a transfer embargo and will not be able to make any new signings.
However, club chairman Mehmet Dalman is ‘confident’ that the embargo will be lifted before the upcoming transfer window. He told BBC Radio Wales Sport:
“I wish I had the power to lift the shadow of this situation from the club.
“People at this club want this resolved.
“People should not forget that a 28-year old man was killed when he there was no need for that accident to happen.
“There is a human side to this story, it is not just a financial one.”
According to The Sun, the club are currently in talks with FIFA and EFL to find a compromise as they await Swiss Federal Court’s decision on their ‘Court of Arbitration for Sport appeal’. The verdict is expected early in 2023.
He added:
“There are lots of legal discussions going on and they will continue to go on, but we have received our first invoice from Nantes.
“We haven’t paid it and at this stage have no intention of paying it, until certain negotiations come to fruition.
“This puts the EFL in a position where they automatically put us under a transfer embargo, but until January that is pretty meaningless anyway.
“Until January I am sure there will be other developments. We are working hard to ensure we can do business then.
“Should fans be worried we won’t be able to buy anyone in January? Yes and no.
“We certainly would like to add more players, the manager [Mark Hudson] is keen to do that and we’ve told him to plan accordingly because we believe this is temporary not permanent.
“But of course it is unpredictable.
“I don’t know Mark dreadfully well, but he’s a professional, he understood our position.
“He didn’t necessarily like it. But we have told him to get his targets in place.”