Crystal Palace co-owner John Textor believes club will compete in Europa League

New York Times

2 days ago

Outgoing Crystal Palace co-owner John Textor believes the club will compete in the Europa League next season as they await a ruling from UEFA on a possible contravention of their multi-club rules.
Palace qualified for the Europa League by winning the FA Cup in May but have since been in limbo with UEFA looking into a potential conflict with Lyon, who are majority owned by American businessman Textor's Eagle Football multi-club group, which also owns a 43 per cent stake in Palace.
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UEFA's rules prevent clubs with mutual owners who have 'decisive influence' from competing in the same tournament. Palace's four general partners — Textor, chairman Steve Parish, fellow American businessmen David Blitzer and Josh Harris — each have a 25 per cent say in the running of the club with Parish effectively being the executive chairman and ultimate decision maker.
Textor has agreed to sell that stake to the New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, with the deal subject to the Premier League's owners and directors test, but UEFA's deadline for complying was March 1, so the sale may not have any impact on the decision.
Palace's four principal owners met with UEFA's Club Financial Control Body in Switzerland last month to present their case that Textor did not have decisive influence at Palace. While there was initial confidence that they had convinced UEFA, that has waned somewhat, but Textor told UK radio station Talksport he thinks Palace will be admitted to the Europa League.
'I don't think it's likely,' he said after it was suggested Palace were expected to drop down into the Conference League, before saying he would not try to 'predict in advance what governing bodies will say'.
'We sat in front of the UEFA panel and were all consistent about the lack of decisive influence. I was asked a question by a senior guy at UEFA and he said casually in the lunch room 'everyone knows you made this (Oliver) Glasner (the Palace manager) hire happen' but that's not true at all. I tried to get him at Lyon, if he spoke French he'd be there.
'I told UEFA that a suggestion is not decisive influence. Nobody tells Steve (Parish) what to do, he's as stubborn as anybody.'
Textor stepped back from the running of Lyon last week and they successfully appealed a decision by the Direction Nationale du Controle de Gestion (DNCG, the body responsible for overseeing the finances of French football clubs) to relegate them to Ligue 2 due to a failure to satisfy them that their financial plan was sustainable.
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That successful appeal means Lyon will play in the Europa League next season and leaves UEFA forced to decide on Palace's participation. Had the relegation been upheld, Lyon would have been ineligible for European competition and Palace would have been guaranteed a Europa League place.
If UEFA rule that Textor had decisive influence then Palace may drop into the Conference League instead.
'The reasons (for his confidence) are in documents that the public hasn't seen. We shouldn't talk about whether or not at 43 per cent vote or whether I have a 25 per cent vote, we could talk about zero.
'The document that I signed when I (bought) the shares says, clearly, I'm not entitled to have any role in management decisions. I sat there in the room (with UEFA) and said, 'let's stop talking about the 25 per cent'.
'If I had decisive influence, I wouldn't have been trying to sell the club. UEFA say sell off your interest, this is what I was doing.
'The only reason they're waiting is obviously because of the Lyon situation. But I think they have a safe harbor in the fact that I have no decisive influence, that my document is very clear, I'm not allowed to have a vote or any involvement.'
Textor said he would have put his shares into a blind trust if necessary, but he didn't because there was no question in his mind that he did not have decisive influence and there was little prospect of Palace qualifying when clubs received correspondence from UEFA in February reminding them to be aware of potential multi-club conflicts.
The American, who invested around £87.5million to take an initial 40 per cent stake at Palace in August 2021, said he was talked out of buying a majority at the time and that he thought he might take a controlling stake in the club before they won the FA Cup in May this year.
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'I was negotiating for 75 per cent (in 2021). They (the other owners) came to me at the 11th hour before the transfer window and said, 'hey, we can get you approved faster if you just buy a minority.'
'Two weeks before the FA Cup, I thought we were finally going to be the majority owner but I went from thinking that I was really going to be able to express my love for Crystal Palace more functionally, to realising that I knew I had to leave after they won the FA Cup, in an attempt to satisfy UEFA's rules.'
Palace are expected to find out their fate soon, but continue to wait pensively for the outcome of UEFA's deliberations. If the outcome is that there is no decisive influence, both teams will play in the Europa League.
Should it fall unfavourably for Palace then they are prepared to challenge the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.