You win some. You lose some.
Considering his legal options: Palace chairman Steve Parish
Less than 24 hours after Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi lifted the Charity Shield as his side beat Liverpool on penalties at Wembley, his club was handed the verdict of a panel of specialist lawyers at the Court for Arbitration in Sport that consigned the FA Cup-winners to a season playing in UEFA’s third-tier competiton, the Conference League.
Crystal Palace were demoted from the Europa League last month under UEFA’s multi-club ownership rules, and following a day-long hearing on Friday, today CAS lawyers dismissed the south London club’s appeal and ruled that UEFA’s decision should stand.
UEFA are expected to confirm that Nottingham Forest will take Palace’s place in the Europa League – a move that some football insiders suggest is another example of a powergrab by the Premier League, at the expense of the prestige of the world’s oldest cup competition, the FA Cup.
Cup-winners Palace will now consider their legal options – not that they have many.
The European uncertainty may have also adversely affected Palace’s business in the summer transfer window, with coach Oliver Glasner speaking openly last week of his need to increase the size of his squad and bring in players in key positions.
Earlier this month, UEFA conducted the Conference League play-off round draw, with Palace among the seeded teams. Palace are due to play Fredrikstad FK of Norway or Denmark’s FC Midtjylland. It is the first time that Palace have ever played in a European competition.
Palace’s multi-club ownership demotion had come about following objections lodged by Forest, a club owned by Greek media and shipping billionaire, Evangelos Marinakis, who also just happens to own shares in Olympiacos.
Steve Parish, the Palace chairman, had previously described UEFA’s decision as “probably one of the greatest injustices that has ever happened in European football”.
Denied the opportunity to take their usual flags and tifo into Wembley Stadium yesterday for the showpiece curtain-raiser to the new season, Palace’s ultra fans contended themselves with some bright flares and two simple banners.
One said “UEFA”. The other said “MAFIA”.
Crass ruling: the decision from the Swiss-based sports arbitration court, delivered today
UEFA made its decision based on the Palace shareholdings of John Textor, who also had shares in another Europa League club, Lyon. Textor has now sold his Palace stock, but after the March 1 UEFA deadline.
Palace has always denied that it is part of a multi-club operation and never has been, maintaining that although Textor owned more shares than other directors, he never had a controlling interest.
Palace are understood to have argued they had been singled out by UEFA and that its rules had not been applied consistently.
Shield of success: Palace won the Charity Shield yesterday. They have plenty of motivation to win more
Today, CAS said: “After considering the evidence, the panel found that John Textor, founder of Eagle Football Holdings, had shares in CPFC and OL [Olympique Lyonnais] 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.”
By time of publication, Crystal Palace had made no formal comment on the decision.
But the nice people at Five Year Plan, the Palace fanzine, grasped the motivational mettle of the decision: “Looking at positives: We still have Europe. We’ll get to some interesting cities (so long as we win our playoff). We’ve got the ability and determination to win it.”
As previously noted, and now that Palace has won its second trophy this year, there’s no reason why the club won’t go on to win its first European competition next May. The Conference League is significantly weaker than other European cup tournaments.
And the 2026 UEFA Conference League final is due to be staged at the RB Arena in Leipzig… that’s right, in the home stadium of a club owned by Red Bull GmbH, the company which also has significant ownership stakes in Austria’s RB Salzburg, as well as clubs on three other continents. It’s almost as if it is meant to be.
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