Sala dispute could have been handled better, says Cardiff boss

Feb 21 (Reuters) - Cardiff City and Nantes "stirred everyone up" by allowing their dispute over the payment of Emiliano Sala's 15 million pound ($19.60 million) transfer fee to play out in the media, the Welsh side's manager Neil Warnock said on Thursday.

After signing for Cardiff in January, Sala was travelling there from French club Nantes when his plane crashed in the English Channel. His body was later recovered from the wreckage, while pilot David Ibbotson is yet to be found.

The clubs were involved in a dispute over when the first instalment of the fee for the Argentine should be paid, and Warnock revealed they had since agreed to extend the date for that payment.

"(Cardiff) have asked for an extension and I think Nantes have agreed to that," Warnock told a news conference ahead of Friday's Premier League home game against Watford. "Certain things were done, on reflection, that shouldn't have been done.

"It stirred everyone up, but I have every confidence... that it will come to a conclusion in the near future. I don't want to go into detail, but it created stories that shouldn't have been done. It should have been kept between the two clubs."

Warnock, who attended Sala's funeral in Argentina last weekend, was also full of praise for the way his players had reacted to the tragedy.

"Football is football, the lads have been very good. We have had three games since the terrible tragedy and have responded in every game," he added.

Cardiff are 17th in the table, a point and a place above the relegation zone, ahead of their match with eighth-placed Watford.

($1 = 0.7650 pounds) (Reporting by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru, editing by Pritha Sarkar)