Chelsea and Aston Villa being fined while Crystal Palace are banned would be a mockery
Meanwhile, Lyon visited the last-chance saloon for what felt like the fifth time in the last few months. The French club were fined €12.5 million with a further €40 million suspended.
Targets have been set for Lyon's trading this coming season. Uefa has stipulated that €60 million must be injected into the club by July 15 and converted into equity within four months. L'Équipe, the French newspaper, has reported this week that the DNCG is minded to rule that Lyon must raise €100 million now and a further €100 million by the end of the season to avoid relegation.
With Textor now off the board and the US investor Michele Kang the new chair of the club, that may or may not be possible. But either way, the question presents itself anew. How many chances will Lyon get?
Lyon could take a Europa League place at the expense of Palace on the actions of a man who never had decisive influence at the Premier League club, and by now does not even own a chair leg at Selhurst Park. Yet if regulation exists for any reason then it is surely to stop the kind of financial collapse that seems to be unfolding at Lyon, not punish well-run clubs like Palace.
Palace's principals, chairman Steve Parish and his US investors David Blitzer and Josh Harris, control the club – but not Textor. They could not force him to comply with the Uefa requirement to place his shares in a blind trust by the March deadline on the off-chance Palace would win the FA Cup. Especially not given that Textor was in the process of selling that stake.
The Palace stake was held in Textor's investment vehicle Eagle Football, of which he owns 50 per cent. Which, when he still owned it, would place his personal control of Palace at less than the 30 per cent determined to constitute decisive influence.
Palace now have no connection with Textor
Textor never ran Palace. The two clubs shared no recruitment staff or data, much less players. Just one trade between the two clubs in all that time – the €1 million sale of Jake O'Brien to Lyon in 2024. One of the current legal cases against Textor is that brought by Bruno Lage, who managed another Eagle Football club, Botafogo. When he sacked Lage, Textor is alleged to have promised him the Palace job which he could ultimately not deliver, for reasons that should now be clear. Lage, now Benfica manager, is suing Textor in the High Court. Eagle Football has said it will vigorously defend its position and indicated it is open to settlement talks with Lage.
If anything might indicate to Uefa that Textor never had decisive influence at Palace, then it might be the Lage case. Indeed, as Lyon owner he traded more with Nottingham Forest than he ever did with Palace. Forest's sale of Moussa Niakhaté last year and then the loan and sale of Orel Mangala were useful disposals for the Premier League club. The Brazilian Igor Jesus moved in the opposite direction on Saturday.
Forest will inherit Palace's place in the Europa League should Uefa expel the latter. Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis also had to go through the Uefa blind trust procedure for MCO when it looked like Forest might make the Champions League as well as his Greek champions Olympiakos. As with every MCO which undertakes the process, from City Football Group, to Ineos at Manchester United, it is a legal tick-box that appeases Uefa.
Does it make any difference when it comes to the reality of ownership? What is not in doubt is that as of July 6, 81 days before the first Europa League first league-stage matchday round, Palace have no connection with Textor – the former investor who never called the shots.
Yet at other clubs where rules are accepted to have been broken the picture is different. Deals are being cut, fines are being suspended, targets for improvement are being set. Palace missed one arbitrary deadline – a requirement that was out of the club's control to fulfil over a supposed MCO overlap that no longer exists. Yet it is Palace who are faced with losing that European place they fought so hard to secure – while others get chance after chance.
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