FIFA will meet in Zurich on Wednesday to decide on the dispute between Cardiff City and Nantes over the £15m transfer fee for Emiliano Sala, Sky sources understand.

Cardiff have refused to pay the fee for the Argentine striker, who had been due to join the then Premier League club in January of this year.

French club Nantes subsequently complained to world football’s governing body and the long-running dispute appears a step closer to being settled.

The plane Sala and pilot David Ibbotson had been travelling in from France to the UK was found on the seabed of the English Channel in February after Air Traffic Control had lost contact with them on January 21.

The plane was discovered by marine recovery specialists who were hired thanks to a crowdfunding appeal launched after the official search was called off.

Sala’s transfer to Cardiff from Nantes had been announced just two days before the plane disappeared as it carried him back to the Welsh capital.