Club Statement | 30/06/23

Today, FIFA ordered Cardiff City FC to pay the 2nd and 3rd instalments of the transfer fee for Emiliano Sala to FC Nantes as expected.

Yesterday the CEO of FC Nantes, Franck Kita, was placed into police custody alongside Bakari Sanogo and Joaquim Batica by the JIRS, French prosecutors specialised in organised crime and financial crime. A judicial investigation was opened in June 2022 on the counts of "illegal exercise of sports agent activity, forgery and use of forgery, misuse of corporate assets, laundering of aggravated tax evasion and organised money laundering". The Club's negligence claim in France against FC Nantes exhibits direct exchanges showing Mr Kita was informing Mr Sanogo of the proposed transfer fee for Emiliano Sala. It is not clear why.

In the circumstances, the Club considers that it would have been fairer if the requirement to pay FC Nantes had been deferred until the conclusion of the French police investigations and the club's claim against FC Nantes in the French courts.