Cardiff to challenge EFL embargo

I don't hold much hope for us overturning it.

Cardiff City: Championship club will challenge EFL transfer embargo - BBC Sport

Cardiff City have issued a challenge to the English Football League [EFL] over a transfer embargo which prevents them paying fees for players until May 2024.

Cardiff had a Fifa embargo lifted after paying the first instalment of the Emiliano Sala transfer fee to Nantes.

Sala died in a plane crash over the English Channel in January 2019 when travelling from France to join Cardiff.

The EFL partially lifted their transfer embargo, which enabled Cardiff to sign free agents and loanees in January.

Cardiff have now begun legal action in an attempt to lift the remaining section of the embargo.

A three-window embargo was initially imposed by Fifa, world football's governing body, because of Cardiff's refusal to pay the first tranche of the £15m transfer fee they had agreed with Nantes for Sala.

Cardiff lost their appeal against that ruling by Fifa. A three-man panel at the Court of Arbitration for Sport [CAS] heard the appeal in Lausanne in 2022.

The Bluebirds claimed they were not liable for any of the fee because Sala was not officially their player when he died at the age of 28. A Swiss Federal Court is still considering an appeal against the CAS verdict.

EFL rules state that a club who default on a payment for a transfer fee will not be able to make a payment for a player registration until the end of the following season, though Cardiff have now paid the first instalment of the Sala fee, plus interest.

With the Fifa embargo removed but the EFL embargo only partially lifted, Cardiff were able to recruit Guinea striker Sory Kaba on loan from Danish club Mitdjylland and Connor Wickham joined as a free agent after leaving Forest Green Rovers in January.

Cardiff confirmed their intention to challenge the EFL ruling in their annual accounts, which revealed an operating loss of £29m over the 2021-22 season.

"Following the ruling by CAS in August 2022 and the subsequent imposition of the transfer embargo by Fifa and the EFL, the club has now paid the first instalment of the transfer fee of seven million euros and the transfer embargo was subsequently lifted, which at least allowed the club to trade during the recent transfer window," they wrote.

"Our ability to trade, however, was restricted in that we were not allowed by the EFL to pay any transfer or compensation fees and were therefore restricted to bringing in loan players or players who were out of contract.

"Discussions with the EFL are continuing around the legality of that ruling and the imposition of EFL rule 52.6 and whether it is fair or proportionate."

BBC Wales Sport has learned Cardiff have sent a letter to the EFL and they have received a reply.

After three wins in their last four games under new manager Sabri Lamouchi, Cardiff are 21st in the Championship, six points clear of the relegation zone.

Lamouchi says he is focusing on the task of keeping Cardiff up and is not yet looking ahead to next season or considering the prospect of the club being prohibited from competing in the transfer market.

"I am happy here, our mission is to save the club from relegation and we are not yet safe, but we are putting ingredients there to put a smile on our fans' faces and it is very positive," he told BBC Sport Wales.

"In a couple of weeks we probably need to sit and discuss what the club want to do."

it does seem to be a different case than the FA rule was put in place for.

I guess the fa rule is to discourage teams from trying to game the FFP system by delaying payments and only clearing the embargo when they need to.
that's not why we were delaying, as the payment was already accounted for on our books, and given we had appeals going through in various courts there were good reasons we hadn't cleared the embargo, but yeah I can't see them letting us off the hook

More work for the lawyers. I wonder how much of the recent losses have been down to legal fees? I also wonder how much the club would have saved in interest and legal fees if they’d just paid the Sala fee when it was due?

Well no point in crying over spilt milk , if the club reckon they have a case let them deal with it

UEFA punishes 11 European soccer clubs for overdue debts
https://apnews.com/article/uefa-fine...b6bfbe567a184e

This transfer by installment is an absolutely car crash on the horizon. I think the number is in the billions globally. In the Premier League in 2020 west ham owed 95mil, Aresnal 107mil, & Spurs 123m. That in itself might not be a problem but what clubs do, is take out loans secured against those incoming fees owed. Only takes 1 or 2 to fail for it all to collapse. Watch this space.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by OurManFlint II

UEFA punishes 11 European soccer clubs for overdue debts
https://apnews.com/article/uefa-fine...b6bfbe567a184e

This transfer by installment is an absolutely car crash on the horizon. I think the number is in the billions globally. In the Premier League in 2020 west ham owed 95mil, Aresnal 107mil, & Spurs 123m. That in itself might not be a problem but what clubs do, is take out loans secured against those incoming fees owed. Only takes 1 or 2 to fail for it all to collapse. Watch this space.

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It's a pile-up. Clubs also borrowing against future seasons' TV money. Multiple clubs under same ownership. I seriously doubt Tan & Co are involved, but there's an awful lot of rumours about suggesting money laundering/washing in the highest places. Football is really beginning to stink.

Just listening to the price of football, of the 10 premier league clubs to turn in their numbers so far, only 1 turned a profit. Promotion isn't the land of milk and honey!

I've no doubt corruption exist, on all levels! We've seen this at our club with suspicious transfers recently.