Plane crash victim Emiliano Sala for burial today in Argentina

Former Nantes player Emiliano Sala who unfortunately could not play for his new club Cardiff following his sudden death, in a plane crash is to be laid to rest in his country Argentina today.

The body of footballer arrived in Argentina on Friday, ahead of this weekend’s wake and burial in his home town.

TV pictures showed a van carrying the body being slowly escorted out of the Buenos Aires airport by police vehicles.

The body is being driven to Progreso, around 538km (334 miles) northwest of the capital Buenos Aires, for a vigil and wake.

Sala, 28, had been flying from his previous club Nantes in western France to Wales on 21 January to join up with Cardiff City when the single-engined Piper Malibu aircraft disappeared over the English Channel.

Wreckage was found on 3 February following a privately-funded underwater search and a body was recovered three days later.

Cardiff City manager Neil Warnock and chief executive Ken Choo are among those who will attend the funeral.

Sala had signed for Cardiff in a club-record £15 million from Nantes but died when the private plane carrying him crashed in the English Channel near Alderney on January 21.

Meanwhile Cardiff City chairman, Mehmet Dalman, has said the club are still gathering information over the £15million fee due to Nantes and will follow due process in sorting out the issue

Dalman insists the Welsh club must do their own due diligence, before deciding how to proceed.

“Of course, if we are contractually obliged to pay them then of course we will.

“We are an honourable club. But if we are not – and there are some anomalies in that – then surely you would expect me as the chairman and guardian of this club’s interests to look into that and hold our position. That is what we are doing”