Gunned-down Cabanas demands compensation

Gunned-down Paraguayan footballer Salvador Cabanas has lodged a demand for compensation from his former Mexican club America with FIFA’s court of arbitration, his lawyer Gerardo Acosta said on Thursday.

The 29-year-old striker was shot in the head by a drug dealer in the public toilets of a bar in Mexico on January 25 while on a night out with his wife and brother-in-law.

His initial request for compensation was rejected by the Mexican Football Federation on the grounds that the shooting did not occur during his work time.

Acosta said that while Cabanas had wanted an amicable settlement with America he was forced to go before world football’s governing body to safeguard his future and that of his wife and children.

Hospitalised for two months Cabanas missed the World Cup in South Africa where Paraguay reached the quarter-finals. His surgeon had said after his operation that Cabanas could eventually recover and play football again.