Fifa has ordered Cardiff City FC to pay £5.3 million to French football team Nantes in relation to the transfer of Emiliano Sala in January.
The 28-year-old Argentinian footballer died when the private plane he was travelling in from France to complete his move to the Welsh side crashed into the English Channel.
Cardiff City had argued it could not be held liable for the £15 million fee because Sala had not registered as a Premier League player before he died.
But in a statement on Monday, Fifa said the team must pay €6 million – the equivalent of the first instalment of the fee for Sala’s transfer.
The aircraft carrying Sala and British pilot David Ibbotson crashed on January 21.
The body of Sala was recovered, and he was formally identified by Dorset Police in February.
A report from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) which was published in August found that Sala had a high concentration of carbon monoxide in his bloodstream prior to the plane crash.
Last week, a CCTV company director and her employee were jailed for 14 months and five months respectively for illegally accessing footage of the footballer’s body in the mortuary.