Cardiff City have launched a robust defence of their handling of the Emiliano Sala transfer fee issue and outlined why they are not paying the £15million sum to Nantes.

Bluebirds chairman Mehmet Dalman candidly explained the situation to a group of supporters at a Q&A session held ahead of Friday night's 1-1 Championship draw with Reading.

Spelling out in detail why the club hierarchy are adopting their stance, Dalman asked the selected supporters' representatives to help pass on the message to the Bluebirds fan base at large.

Cardiff accept they might not have outlined their reasons well enough in public since the row over the fee unfolded, mainly because of the need to keep their counsel on matters that are at the centre of litigation.

But they put their case to the fans while launching the Emiliano Sala memorial fund following the one-year anniversary of the tragic flight.

Cardiff have taken something of a kicking from the London media and football supporters in general for their stance on the Sala fee, with some Bluebirds fans also weighing in to say the club should pay the money and get it over and done with.

Dalman says that attitude irritates him, given the complexities of the matter and the possibility, according to Cardiff, of French prosecutors becoming involved.

"It is really complicated and I feel very strongly about it," said Dalman.

"I read the forums, and hear what fans are saying, and it throws me a little: 'Why don't we just pay the money?'

"The answer to that is it's £15m. If we don't have to pay, why should we? There is a lot more to this than perhaps people sometimes realise, things that still need to come out.

"As chairman, I'm the guardian of this football club and I have to do what's right for us.

"Do you know, even if we had £15m to spare, were willing to throw money away, my decision would not be any different. There are certain principles we have to act upon.

"I saw one article in one of the papers saying Cardiff City don't want to pay Nantes anything. Rubbish. I flew to Nantes, told them 'let's split this down the middle, each give an amount to a Sala trust fund.' They basically told me to get on my bike and go back to London."

FIFA have ordered the Bluebirds to pay Nantes the first instalment of the Sala fee - which equates to £5.3m - but Cardiff are disputing the judgement and are taking the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

They were submitting documents for their case this weekend and expect a summer hearing, although that could get delayed further if French prosecutors get involved.

There are four issues that are likely to prove key as far as Cardiff are concerned.

An interim report from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch has already determined that neither the aircraft or the pilot, David Ibbotson, were licensed to operate commercial journeys.

Football agent Willie McKay has publicly stated he arranged the flight through an experienced pilot and "aviation facilitator" called David Henderson, who he intended to pay, and Cardiff want to know more about this and the legality of the flight.

The third element are reports Mr Ibbotson was not allowed to fly at night in any capacity because he was colour blind. The AAIB's final report is due to be published by the end of March.

And fourthly , football-wise, Cardiff argue Sala had not signed the correct registration documents that would have officially secured him as a Bluebirds player able to play in the Premier League.

Dalman said at the Q&A: "I think we have a very strong legal case. What's best for the club is to fight for our rights.

"Firstly, don't just look at this through the findings of FIFA, which are a very narrow interpretation of football law. There is a much bigger picture to it than that.

"Secondly, there are so many things that we're not happy about and these are still under investigation. Look at the circumstances of the accident, what happened. We did not put Emiliano on the plane. We did not choose a pilot who was colour blind and not fit to fly at night.

"I'm not paying the £15m in those circumstances. There are so many things that still need to be explored, so many answers we need.

"FIFA have missed a trick here. What they should have done was got Cardiff City and Nantes into a room, locked the doors and told us we weren't leaving until we had worked it out between ourselves.

"Instead, they treated it like a hot potato. They don't want to know.

"That is why we are putting our case to the Court of Arbitration of Sport. We can't and won't just accept FIFA's decision.

"We are submitting our documents this weekend, then CAS will give us a date for the hearing, probably in the summer. But if the French authorities decide upon charges, that will obviously get suspended.

"We've informed the prosecuting office in France that there are a number of investigative issues they need to look at. It's up to the French prosecutor to decide whether to prosecute or not. It's not Cardiff City's decision, we've simply made them aware of certain things."

Cardiff also remain unhappy with the role of agent McKay in the whole affair, with Dalman claiming at the fans' Q&A forum any tie-up with Nantes needs to be investigated further.

"It's not just Nantes, there are other factors at play here. He arranged the plane," claimed Dalman at the meeting.

"They could have asked us about travel. We offered Emiliano a normal British Airways Club Class flight to the UK, as we do with every one of our players.

"They declined that and did what they did. Cardiff City did not organise the flight."

Explaining why he was speaking out at this stage, Dalman said: "We need to get our message across.

"We have not previously come out and said what we really think. I want to tell our story more openly than we have done in the past.

"There are lots of negative things people are saying about Cardiff City that we need to address. We've kept our counsel up to this point, but I just feel this is the time for us to explain our stance."

He told the gathered supporters: "I'd ask you to get this message out to your fellow fans."

Cardiff have set up the Sala trust fund and invested a "substantial" amount, although Dalman wouldn't disclose the exact figure.

But he said: "I'd like to see Nantes match what we put in, or any agent. Put your money where you mouth is.

“This is a joint venture by Cardiff City and the Sala family. We have been working on it for over a year.

“We have always wanted to do something for him and we had to get them fully onside. You can't do it without them.

“We worked tirelessly to make sure they were happy with every single thing. That was important and took time - cross-border issues, language issues, legal issues. We had to overcome those to get where we wanted to be."

Dalman said he has been working on the trust fund behind the scenes with Bluebirds owner Vincent Tan and chief executive Ken Choo for some time.

“I've been championing for this - as have Vincent and Ken - for a year and we've got something that makes sense," he continued.

“We would invite the football world, even the whole world, to make a contribution to this.

"We feel the timing of this announcement is just right after the anniversary. We didn't want to announce it before the anniversary."