Cardiff City will not pay Nantes for Emiliano Sala until the investigation surrounding the striker’s disappearance has concluded.
Nantes have demanded 6million euros (£5.27million) from Cardiff in the next ten days and the Premier League club consider those demands ‘totally insensitive’, talkSPORT has learned.
Cardiff are yet to pay any of the £15million fee for the Argentine striker, which is due in three instalments, as they wait for all the facts to emerge.
talkSPORT host Jim White said: “Cardiff received a demand from Nantes for 6million euros (£5.27million) 48 hours ago. That sum has to be paid in the next ten days. It’s a legal letter and it’s a demand.
“Cardiff were surprised to receive the demand and, in-house, it’s regarded as totally insensitive while the investigation is ongoing.
“And while it is still ongoing, Cardiff will NOT be paying the demand.
“Cardiff, at the very top level, would be open to a meeting with Nantes to say: ‘Instead of legal letters, why don’t we sit down and talk?’”
Sala, 28, signed for Cardiff in a club-record deal before the light aircraft carrying him and pilot David Ibbotson lost radar contact on 21 January while it travelled from Nantes to Cardiff.
The Piper Malibu N264DB has since been located in the English Channel and a body was recovered from the wreckage on Wednesday night.
The aircraft remains 67 metres underwater 21 miles off the coast of Guernsey as poor weather conditions stopped efforts to recover it.
The body is being taken to Portland to be passed over to the Dorset coroner for examination, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch confirmed.
A statement issued by the coroner and Dorset police said the body was brought to Portland Port as it was the nearest part of the British mainland to where the plane was located.
“The coroner will investigate the circumstances of this death supported by Dorset Police. A post-mortem examination will be held in due course,” the statement said.
“While formal identification is yet to take place, the families of Emiliano Sala and David Ibbotson have been updated and will continue to be supported by specially-trained family liaison officers, during this difficult time.”