Crystal Palace Facing European Expulsion? Soccer

[Strawberry Man]

Crystal Palace will head for an emergency summit with UEFA as they bid to avoid being kicked out of European football due to multi-club ownership rules.

John Textor owns around 43% of the Eagles' shares but is also the majority shareholder at Lyon, who also qualified for the Europa League.

Palace believe they have a strong case to avoid any sanction, but if they fail to find a solution then Nottingham Forest would take their UEL spot and rivals Brighton would take the slot in the UECL.

 

[Strawberry Man]

Updated: Friday 11th July 2025

A UEFA panel has recommended that Crystal Palace are denied entry to the Europa League next season after it found that the club breached the governing body's rules on multi-club ownership.

The south London club are now set to compete in the third-tier Conference League but intend to lodge an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Nottingham Forest, who finished seventh in the Premier League and originally qualified for the Conference League, could now replace them in the Europa League.

UEFA's rules say that the next-best-placed club in the top domestic league of the same association will replace any team who drop out of its continental competitions, providing the replacement club 'fulfils the admission criteria' of the tournament and possesses the relevant license, but any confirmation of such is unlikely before the outcome of any potential CAS hearing.

Palace had originally qualified for the Europa League by winning the FA Cup in May. Eberechi Eze scored the only goal of the game against Manchester City as the club lifted its first-ever major trophy.

UEFA's rules state that no individual or legal entity can have "control or influence" over more than one club participating in a UEFA club competition, and European football's governing body must be satisfied that the respective clubs are separate entities to maintain their tournaments' integrity.

Palace's issue stems from Eagle Football, which owns a 43 per cent share of the club and is controlled by John Textor, also owning a majority stake in French club Lyon, who qualified for the competition.

UEFA had postponed a verdict on Palace until the outcome of Lyon's appeal against relegation to Ligue 2, which they won. Lyon had initially been demoted to the second-tier following a review of their financial situation by the Direction Nationale du Controle de Gestion, the body responsible for overseeing the finances of French football clubs, and agreed with UEFA that they would not play in Europe if their relegation was upheld.

A statement from the First Chamber of UEFA's Club Financial Control Body(CFCB) on Friday read:

"The CFCB First Chamber had opened proceedings against Crystal Palace and Olympique Lyonnais due to a potential conflict with the multi-club ownership rule provided for in Article 5 of the UEFA Club Competitions Regulations.

"On 9 July 2025, the appeal instance of the French financial control authority (DNCG) decided not to relegate Olympique Lyonnais to Ligue 2. Consequently, and following an assessment by the CFCB of all the other relevant conditions included in the settlement agreement, Olympique Lyonnais will not be excluded from the 2025/26 UEFA club competitions (see media release of 30 June 2025).

"Consequently, the CFCB First Chamber pursued the assessment of the documentation submitted by Olympique Lyonnais and Crystal Palace and concluded that the clubs breached, as at 1 March 2025, the multi-club ownership criteria foreseen in Art 5.01 of the UEFA Club Competition Regulations.

"For this reason, and in accordance with the provisions set in Art. 5.02, 5.03 and 5.04 of the UEFA Club Competitions Regulations, the CFCB First Chamber decided:

• To accept Olympique Lyonnais' admission to the 2025/26 UEFA Europa League; and

• To reject Crystal Palace's admission to the 2025/26 UEFA Europa League and to accept Crystal Palace's admission to the 2025/26 UEFA Conference League.

"The present decision may be appealed against before the Court of Arbitration for Sport, in accordance with Articles 62 and 63 of the UEFA Statutes."

 

[Strawberry Man]

This raises the question of how can RB Leipzig and RB Salzburg play in the same competition, or Man City and Girona, or Chelsea and Strasbourg?

If this is a rule, it should apply to all clubs, and also don't allow an owner to have control over two teams in the first place.

 

[Crabtree]

Crystal Palace have lost their appeal and will now play in the Conference League with Notts Forest taking their spot in the Europa League.