Crystal Palace Lose Appeal, Demoted From Europa League

Just 24 hours after lifting the FA Community Shield, Crystal Palace have failed in their bid to overturn their demotion from the Europa League to the Conference League, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) confirmed on Monday morning.

The FA Cup winners lost their appeal against UEFA’s decision – which was based on breaches of the governing body’s multi-club ownership restrictions. UEFA ruled that Palace had broken the regulations because former co-owner John Textor also held shares in Europa league-bound Olympique Lyonnais.

Textor has since sold his 43% stake in Palace to US businessman Woody Johnson – but it was too late to escape the UEFA sanction.

At Friday’s Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) hearing in Lausanne, club chairman Steve Parish argued that Textor never had significant influence over the board and was no longer involved with the club. Palace also claimed they were treated unfairly and that UEFA had applied its rules inconsistently.

The club reportedly presented evidence that only European Club Association members were told UEFA’s March 1 deadline for setting up a blind trust could be pushed back to May 31. This extension allowed Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis, who also owns Olympiakos, to place Forest into a blind trust in late April.

Forest are expected to take Palace’s place in the Europa League.

CAS, which had conducted an expedited appeal process, said: “After considering the evidence, the panel found that John Textor, founder of Eagle Football Holdings, had shares in CPFC and OL and was a Board member with decisive influence over both clubs at the time of Uefa’s assessment date. The panel also dismissed the argument by CPFC that they received unfair treatment in comparison to Nottingham Forest and OL. The panel considered that the Uefa regulations are clear and do not provide flexibility to clubs that are non-compliant on the assessment date, as CPFC claimed.”

Palace are due to have a Conference League playoff against the losers of the Europa League qualifier between Norway’s Fredrikstad or Midtjylland of Denmark, with the first leg scheduled on August 21.

They will play Nottingham Forest at home in the Premier League three days later.

Premier League sides have a strong track record in the UECL – Chelsea are the current title holders while West Ham won in 2023.

On Sunday Crystal Palace won the Community Shield over Liverpool. The club said they will likely have to sell Captain Marc Guehi amid fears of losing him on a free next summer. His destination: the team he just beat.

Insideworldfootball.com