English Premier League soccer side Crystal Palace have been stripped of their place in next season’s UEFA second-tier Europa League after the governing body ruled they breached its multi-club ownership rules.
The judgement sees the team demoted to the third-tier Conference League, while fellow Premier League team Nottingham Forest, who finished seventh last season, could take Palace’s place.
UEFA has claimed Palace breached Article 5.01 of the UEFA Club Competition Regulations, which prevents a single person or entity from having an interest in multiple clubs competing in the same competition.
Eagle Football Holdings, which is owned by American John Textor, had stakes in Crystal Palace (43%) and French side Olympique Lyonnais (77%) last season, and both teams qualified for the competition.
Lyon finished sixth in France’s top-tier Ligue 1 to qualify, while Palace won its domestic FA Cup competition to enter the Europa League, which ended up running them afoul of UEFA’s legislation on teams from the same ownership group competing in the same competition.
The American has since negotiated a £190 million ($255.3 million) sale agreement for his stake with NFL team owner and former US ambassador to the UK, Woody Johnson, who is now undergoing the league’s ownership test to verify his suitability for governance.
However, as Textor failed to fully enact his Palace divestment by a deadline in May, which was set before the team had earned its Europa League qualification, UEFA’s judgment swayed against the English side.
The ruling comes on the back of Lyon having their administrative relegation to the second-tier Ligue 2 overturned by the country’s DNCG financial monitoring body last week after appealing an earlier decision.
The DNCG provisionally relegated Lyon last November and gave the team a deadline of July 2025 to improve its debt situation, which came to €505.1 million ($585.7 million) last October.
The relegation would have seen Lyon withdraw from the 2025-26 Europa League due to the costs associated with competing in the tournament, thus allowing Crystal Palace to compete.
However, a combination of player sales, early player payments from indebted parties such as Paris Saint-Germain, the sale of other parts of the Eagle Football Holdings business, and more has proven to the DNCG that Lyon’s financial situation has been adequately ameliorated.
The DNCG overturning the relegation ruling means that Lyon remains in the division and will also be able to compete in the 2025-26 edition of UEFA’s Europa League.
Lyon takes precedence over Palace in the Europa League due to their higher placement in Ligue 1 compared to Palace’s finish in the Premier League.
UEFA said Palace have an option to appeal the decision with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which the club is assessing.
Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish questioned UEFA’s decision, telling Sky Sports: “It’s an incredible travesty of justice. We’re not part of a multi-club organization. [UEFA president] Aleksander Ceferin stood on a platform of supporting small clubs.
“We stood together with the Super League because I wanted to maintain that dream. I didn’t want a competition where clubs like us were locked out. Maybe if we weren’t Crystal Palace, if we were a different club, [the UEFA investigation] wouldn’t have even got this far.”
However, UEFA has denied any claim that Palace have been treated harshly, pointing to the case as a clear breach of the regulations after assessing “the documentation submitted” by Lyon and Palace.
A similar situation previously arose with Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis, who placed his share in a blind trust before UEFA’s March 1 deadline to ensure they would be able to join Olympiakos, another of his clubs, in the Champions League if they had qualified.
That club eventually finished seventh, securing a Conference League place, but could inherit Palace’s place in the Europa League should the decision be upheld.
