A mistake by Cardiff City could be rather costly to Emiliano Sala's family, as they would not be able to collect a compensation over the player's death.
The player, who died on January 21 after the aircraft that transported him to Wales vanished from all radars on mysterious circumstances, had signed a record-breaking deal with the Bluebirds prior to his demise. Unfortunately, there seems to be a problem with the contract he signed, which would make it void in the eyer of the Premier League.
Cardiff City had sent Sala's registration papers to the Premier League , but the league sent some documents back because they needed to be corrected. Sala had to sign those papers again, but he failed to do so because he died while flying back to Cardiff.
All Premier League contracts ensure that players are enrolled in a pension scheme from the very moment their contract is registered with them. In this case, the fee for death-in-service grants over $780,000 to the player's relatives.
The Professional Footballers' Association will ask EPL authorities to honor this deal, since Sala believed he had signed the proper documents before he passed away.
It will be for the trustees to see whether they are able to make the payment from there. Normally it would be a simple process but we will be speaking with them on this. Usually, as soon as a contract is registered with the Premier League the player is enrolled on the pension scheme," John Bramhall, PFA chief executive stated.
The PFA quotes Cheick Tiote's case as background to grant Sala's family the compensation fee. The player passed away while playing in China, but his pension fund was still valid even if he was not registered as a Newcastle player at the time of his death.
This is not the only ongoing legal argument surrounding Sala's demise, as Cardiff and Nantes had entered a tug of war to see the Bluebirds paying the French side the first fee for Sala's transfer. Eventually, Cardiff was granted one more week to pay Nantes $6.7M, the first of three payments that secured Sala's transfer to the EPL side.
