Crystal Palace will play in the Conference League this season after losing their appeal against UEFA at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
The Eagles qualified for the Europa League after beating Manchester City in the FA Cup final last season – winning the first major trophy in their history.
However, UEFA demoted them to the Conference League after ruling that the Premier League side were in breach of their multi-club ownership (MCO) rules – despite not technically being part of a MCO set-up.
Palace’s – now former – largest shareholder John Textor also owns French club Lyon who had also qualified for the Europa League by finishing sixth in Ligue 1.
UEFA rules state that no one owner may have significant control over multiple clubs playing in the same competition and as Lyon finished higher in their league table – sixth compared to Palace’s 12th – they get to keep their place.
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Palace have repeatedly argued that while Textor, through his Eagle Football Group, had a 43 per cent stake in the club, he was not involved in any major football decisions and had for over a year been attempting to sell his stake due to not having any influence at the club.
Clubs can circumnavigate the MCO rules as the likes of INEOS-owned Manchester United and Nice have done previously, but the deadline to do so was March 1 – over two months before Palace’s shock FA Cup triumph.
Over the summer, Textor did finally sell his shares to New York Jets owner Woody Johnson and now has absolutely zero connection to Palace but this did nothing to change UEFA’s mind.
Palace appealed the decision at CAS, hoping to be reinstated into Europe’s second-tier competition with the hearing taking place on Friday, but on Monday it was announced that they had lost their case.
The ruling comes just a day after the south London club beat Premier League champions Liverpool on penalties at Wembley to win the FA Community Shield.
UEFA are set to confirm that Nottingham Forest have been promoted to take Palace’s place in the Europa League.
More to follow…
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