Cardiff City have been forced to pay Nantes the transfer balance for Emiliano Sala, who died in a plane tragedy before making his debut for the Welsh club.
According to the BBC, Fifa has ordered the Championship club to pay more than €11 million (£9.45 million).
This covers the final two installments of the €17 million agreed upon between the teams.
Meanwhile, French prosecutors have confirmed that numerous FC Nantes staff have been arrested.
That is as part of an investigation into money laundering and tax fraud.
- Footballer died after plane broke up mid-air
- Cardiff City tried to insure Sala for £20m the day after his death – court
- Emiliano Sala: Cardiff City pay Nantes first instalment of transfer fee
Cardiff City has been in dispute with FC Nantes over the transfer fee since the striker’s death in January 2019.
The Argentine had just become Cardiff City’s £15m record signing when the plane carrying him from France to Wales crashed into the English Channel.
In May, the club said it would continue legal action against FC Nantes through the French courts after a Swiss Federal Tribunal decided the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) did not have the power to deal with the club’s claim for damages.
Cardiff failed in its appeal to the CAS over the Fifa ruling, and in January paid the first instalment, believed to be around £7m, of the Sala fee to Nantes.
Fifa then lifted a transfer embargo.
On Friday, the club issued a statement confirming the decision by Fifa they should pay the final two instalments.
But it questioned the timing of the Fifa ruling, saying: “It would have been fairer if the requirement to pay FC Nantes had been deferred until the conclusion of the French police investigations and the club’s claim against FC Nantes in the French courts.”
Separately, French investigators confirmed on Friday they were investigating employees of FC Nantes over a number of charges including:
- Illegal exercise of the activity of a sports agent by a national of a member state or party to the agreement on the European economic area
- Forgery and use of forgery
- Misuse of corporate assets
- Laundering of aggravated tax fraud
- Organised gang money laundering
Philippe Astruc, district attorney for the Court of Justice of Rennes said: “The French Football Federation has instituted civil proceedings before the investigating judge, as part of its mission to regulate the activity of sports agents in the discipline of football and to defend the moral and material interests of French football.
“The investigations primarily focused on the examination of contracts, bank accounts, and financial flows, as well as the examination of numerous documents seized during the search.”