CARDIFF TURN TO RIVALS FOR HELP IN SALA CASH BATTLE

CARDIFF CITY have contacted other Premier League clubs in an attempt to establish whether there may be grounds to avoid paying the full £15million transfer fee being demanded by Nantes for Emiliano Sala, the Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Letters sent in the past few days by lawyers acting for the club request help in ‘fighting off Nantes’ legal claim’, according to one source. They ask clubs for assistance in ‘sharing your knowledge of Sala as a player.’

And in phrasing which makes it clear that the Welsh side believe they may not have to pay all — or indeed any — of the record transfer fee, the correspondence from a Cardiff law firm describes Sala as ‘the player that Cardiff City tried to sign’.

Details of the letters — which the club last night have confirmed were sent — emerged as manager Neil Warnock and chief executive Ken Choo arrived in Argentina for the player’s funeral.

The Mail on Sunday can reveal that Cardiff’s decision to approach Premier League clubs publicly linked with Sala (right) is partially motivated by transfer broker Willie McKay’s admission in an email to the striker that he had sought to artificially inflate the price. McKay told Sala he had told the media of rival suitors ‘just to stimulate interest in you’.

The club are seeking to establish whether there was indeed any interest from other clubs. McKay’s email to Sala listed Everton and West Ham as interested, though Crystal Palace, Fulham, Burnley and Wolves were also said to be in the mix.

The Mail on Sunday revealed two weeks ago how one club had been publicly linked to Sala simply on the basis of a text message being sent.

A second club was bemused to receive the letter from Cardiff’s lawyers suggesting they had also been linked, a source saying: ‘This simply isn’t true.’

But Sala is by no means the first player to have been transferred after being artificially linked with other clubs.

It is difficult to see how the Welsh side can possibly cite this practice to avoid paying the first £5m tranche of the fee agreed with Nantes.

But Cardiff remain to be convinced of that. They have said they will ‘do the right thing’ but have indicated they ‘first want full facts disclosed about what happened and the involvement of agents with Nantes in the deal.’

The number of brokers involved in the deal is also understood to have concerned them. Some at the top of the club only became aware of the number taking a cut after a Mail on Sunday report which listed them. Cardiff want to establish what part each of those individuals played. As well as McKay and his son Mark, whose Mercato Sports outfit was given a mandate by Nantes to find a buyer for Sala, the agent Baba Drame stood to gain from the £15m deal — which he boasted about on Instagram.

So did Bakari Sanogo, who is said to be very influential with the Nantes president Waldemar Kita. Contacted via an intermediary this week in an attempt to establish what his precise role in the Sala deal was, Sanogo replied to say he didn’t want to comment. The Mail on Sunday understands that Cardiff retain some belief that the transfer had not been completed. They were investigating last week whether he had been de-registered by Ligue 1 in France and registered by the Premier League. There is also some suggestion that personal terms had not been finalised.

Images of the player ‘signing’ released by club media on January 19 were stunted.

But our own inquiries have established that the transfer process was completed two days later, leaving the club with no way of avoiding meeting Nantes’ demand for payment, which the French club has already put in writing.

The player’s International Transfer Certificate was registered with the FA of Wales on January 21 — the day he died in the plane crash.

The Premier League has indicated that Sala was subsequently named in a Cardiff City squad list.

The registration of the ITC is key in the transfer process. Once complete, the player becomes the property of the buying club.