Crystal palace dream playing in the 2025-26 UEFA Europa league is over since the club has lost its appeal case in the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS). Rather, the fans of the FA cup will now be up against the UEFA Conference League.
UEFA Demotion for Club Ownership Breach
The team was penalised over the strict multi-club ownership regulations specified by UEFA and the Eagles had won its first-ever major trophy in May defeating Manchester City 1-0 in the FA Cup final. They had also won the Community Shield a few days to the verdict after beating Liverpool in the penalties.
CAS endorsed the position taken by UEFA to relegate Crystal Palace because the investor John Textor holds 43 percent shares in Crystal Palace last season but also controlled the French club Lyon. According to the rules set forth by UEFA, such an arrangement is not to be allowed in case both clubs advance to European competitions.
The request by Palace to be allowed to stay in the more profitable Europa League was confirmed dismissed by the court. Nottingham Forest and Lyon are assigned immediate places in the group stage of the competition and Palace will start their season in the playoff round of the Conference League.
Conference League Playoff Awaits Crystal Palace
Palace will either play Fredrikstad of Norway or Denmark Midtjylland on August 21, and August 28 as part of the Conference League qualifiers. The relegation is despite the cup victory earlier this year which was the historic triumph of the club.
UEFA made its pronouncement following the failure of Palace to address a March deadline in fixing its ownership question. The CAS panel said Textor was a board member who had a decisive influence on both clubs on the date of the assessment by UEFA and the regulations provide no latitude to non-compliant clubs.
Textor’s Exit Fails to Change CAS Decision
Even though Textor sold his share in Palace last month to Woody Johnson who owns the New York Jets, the case proceeded on the grounds of the prevailing circumstances at the date of the assessment. The decision implies that the European adventure of Palace will be one step lower than they deserved through merit.
Forest and Lyon are still in the multi-club networks, but the situations do not contradict the UEFA regulations. Olympiakos The owner of forest Evangelos Marinakis also owns Greek champions Olympiakos, which will also participate in this season of the Champions League.
UEFA’s Warning on Multi-Club Ownership
Their triumphant partying around the win of the historic FA cup was marred by the imminence of the possibility of the UEFA punishment. The regulations which are over 25 years old are used to ensure that there is no conflict of interest in ownership over the European competitions.
The Palace fans carried some protests at Wembley during the Community Shield with the inscription UEFA Mafia on the banners. The regulator has repeatedly cautioned of the dangers of investors having interests in more than one club such as being able to rig results and transactions in transfer deals.
Textor belongs to a trend of American investors purchasing interests in European football, a process that has continued to alter the financial and competitive base of the game.
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