Floriana have lodged a complaint with FIFA arguing that Serie B side Trapani had failed to honour a payment over the transfer of former Greens striker Igor Coronado.
Floriana, who led the Premier League standings before the championship was suspended, have opened a case at FIFA’s Dispute Resolution Chamber wherein they are contending that the struggling Serie B side have failed to cover an instalment on the sell-on fee the Maltese club was due to receive following Coronado’s transfer from Trapani to Palermo.
“I have tried in every way to try and settle the issues outside football courts but Trapani continue to breach our agreement,” president Riccardo Gaucci told the Times of Malta.
“Four months have now passed since the last instalment was settled and yet Trapani have so far failed to continue paying their dues. So, we had no other option but to take the case to FIFA.”
Coronado arrived in Malta in 2012 after he caught the eye of Gaucci himself at his former club Aylesbury United, an English non-league club.
At Floriana, Coronado started to show his real footballing talent as he amassed 35 goals in 67 appearances, attracting the interest of Trapani who agreed to take the player on loan with an option to make the deal permanent.
Coronado took little time to settle down at Trapani and in his first season in Italy he continued to impress scoring eight goals in 41 appearances.
At the end of the 2015-16 season, Trapani held talks with Floriana to make Coronado’s move permanent and the Greens included a clause in the deal that would see them get a 40 percentage of the fee received by Trapani should they transfer the player.
In July 2017, Palermo launched a bid to sign Coronado and succeeded in getting the player’s signature for €1.4 million.
That contract meant Floriana would receive €560,000 in general bonuses as per contract.
Trapani honoured their agreement with Floriana in season 2017-18 and 2018-19 but this time round, because of the club’s difficult financial situation, they only managed one of three instalments due.
A series of talks between both clubs were held but to no avail compelling Floriana to seek a solution via the international ruling body of sport. In their complaint Floriana are asking Trapani to pay them the sum of €80,000 plus interest as part of the Coronado deal.
FIFA’s Dispute Resolution Chamber is expected to reach a decision on this particular case over the next few weeks.
If Trapani, currently third from bottom in the Serie B, lose the case but persist in not honouring the deal they risking having points docked, a measure that would further hamper their bid of retaining their status in the Italian second-tier.