Cardiff City are struggling this season in the Sky Bet Championship. They sit an uncomfortable and lowly 20th in the table.
Cardiff City fans have had watch on as the usually combative Mick McCarthy and his Bluebirds have stumbled and floundered recently.
The Welsh side are on a horror run of results and yesterday’s 1-0 loss against Reading was their fifth on the trot.
Away from the pitch, Sun man Alan Nixon (Sun on Sunday print edition, 03.10.21, pg. 60) writes that things could get much worse for the Welsh side next year.
The bad news that Nixon brings is that Cardiff will learn their fate over the Emiliano Sala transfer tragedy “in the new year.”
Sala tragedy, Cardiff City stance and upcoming fate
Cardiff City were a Premier League side when they agreed a club-record £15million fee with French side Nantes for Argentinian striker Sala.
Cardiff City publicised Sala’s capture on the club’s official website. However, tragedy struck when the plane carrying Sala crashed in the English Channel. Sala was returning to Cardiff after his farewells to teammates at Nantes.
Cardiff City refused to pay Nantes citing “sufficient evidence of wrongdoing” in the arrangement of the flight bringing Sala back to England.
Cardiff have been ordered to pay this transfer fee but are “fighting FIFA’s decision” according to Nixon. He adds that a decision will be made “by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in the new year.”
Thoughts?
There is no easy way to think about this transfer story other than to remember that it is one steeped in tragedy – the untimely death of Emiliano Sala at its very core.
Cardiff City had announced Sala’s capture and even publicised it on the club website. That much is beyond obvious. However, they obviously think that they have a very strong case to have the £15milllion transfer fee set aside.
The CAS panel is due to hear the case from both sides in February next year. It will be then when Cardiff City learn their fate in this tragic saga.
