Minute's silence for Emiliano Sala to be held before all Champions League games

A minute's silence will be held at all Champions League and Europa League games this week in memory of Emiliano Sala.

Sala, who signed for Cardiff from Nantes in January for £15million, died when the plane he was on crashed in the English Channel last month.

His death was confirmed last week when his body was recovered from the wreckage, while pilot David Ibbotson is yet to be found.

'On behalf of everyone at UEFA, I would like to express my sincerest condolences to the family and loved ones of Emiliano Sala for their loss,' UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin said in a statement on UEFA's website.

'I am deeply saddened that his life was so cruelly taken away at such a young age and I urge supporters across the continent to pay their respects to his memory over the coming days.'

UEFA also confirmed that clubs have the option of wearing black armbands in memory of the Argentine forward.

Meanwhile, Sportsmail can reveal that the investigation into the crash is likely to take a year to conclude and cannot be used by Cardiff as a reason to delay paying Nantes.

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) indicated that the average time taken to complete such an inquiry is 12 months.

The inquiry will include interviews with the Piper Malibu's owner, whose identity must be made known to the AAIB.

Although Cardiff have indicated that they do not intend to make any moves until the conclusion of official investigations into the crash, legal experts say the club have no grounds on which to delay the first tranche of the agreed £15m fee.

James Earl, a partner at legal firm Fladgate LLP, said that the contract agreeing the 28-year-old's transfer would have involved Cardiff making a cast-iron commitment to paying Nantes the money and that the crash will not have changed that.

Any culpability on the part of Nantes could theoretically see Cardiff attempt to negotiate down Sala's price, the lawyer said — yet there appears to be no such fault.

Cardiff are not likely to able to make a claim against the owners of the plane or the McKay family —who were hired by Nantes to find a buyer for Sala — because the club had no involvement at all in the transaction which saw Ibbotson and the Piper Malibu used for Sala's trip back to Nantes.