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Revealed: The 'email that gives Crystal Palace hope they CAN get back into the Europa League'

Daily Mail

18-07-2025

Business
Daily Mail

Revealed: The 'email that gives Crystal Palace hope they CAN get back into the Europa League'

Crystal Palace reportedly have a glimmer of hope that UEFA's rules are more flexible than many thought, potentially paving the way for their Europa League entry. The London club are appealing their exile from the competition with the Court of Arbitration for Sport after they were 'demoted' due to UEFA's multi-club ownership rules. As it stands, Palace are set to compete in the Europa Conference League because their former owner John Textor also has a stake in Lyon, who qualified for the Europa League as well. UEFA set a deadline of March 1 for clubs to provide evidence of multi-club ownership restructuring. Essentially, it is banned for a powerful figure like Textor to be a controlling figure at two clubs in the same competition. The American has insisted he did not have a 'decisive influence at Palace' - a claim which is hotly contested. It is a long shot, but The Telegraph reports that clubs received an email last year which suggests that the deadline is actually beyond March 1. The European Club Association (ECA) told numerous multi-club groups in October that the deadline is flexible, and would allow issues to be resolved until May 31, as per The Telegraph. John Textor still missed that deadline but it gives hope that UEFA are more flexible than they have been letting on Textor sold his 43 per cent stake in Palace to Woody Johnson for £190million in June, and resigned from his board leadership role at Lyon in the same months, so missed the more flexible deadline on both of those counts. But according to The Telegraph, the ECA email still gives encouragement to Palace because it suggests that UEFA are more flexible than they are letting on. The ECA declined to comment to The Telegraph. Palace insist the March 31 deadline has only been applied strictly to them - clubs such as Chelsea, Barcelona and Aston Villa have all negotiated fines for financial breaches in recent weeks. In any case, UEFA have told Palace that Textor 'historically' owning a stake in Palace and Lyon is an issue. The Selhurst Park side argue he had no 'decisive influence,' but he did pay off the club's Covid-19 debt and help establish the Palace academy. Textor also passes off Palace's hiring of FA Cup-winning coach Oliver Glasner shortly after he admits he almost gave him the Lyon job as a happy coincidence - and you can read Ian Ladyman's views on that here. Palace won their first major competition, the FA Cup, in May, a tournament they would have had little inkling that they would win back before the March 1 deadline, when they still had four games left to play. Fans launched a flare-fuelled protest against UEFA's decision on Tuesday night, waving a banner which read: 'UEFA. Morally bankrupt. Revoke the ruling now.'

Why Forest shouldn't feel bad about taking Crystal Palace's Europa League place

New York Times

16-07-2025

Sport
New York Times

Why Forest shouldn't feel bad about taking Crystal Palace's Europa League place

Steve Parish has been talking a lot in the last few days. And he's not been happy. The Crystal Palace chairman's unhappiness is partly fuelled by an understandable sense of injustice at his club's demotion to the Conference League from the Europa League, after being found in breach of UEFA's multi-club ownership rules. Advertisement In one of his interviews, Parish speculated that Nottingham Forest, the club who are set to benefit from this punishment, surely don't actually want to benefit from it. 'I know Forest are a fantastic club,' he told Sky Sports. 'They have a black swan event that got them into the European Cup. They won it. That enabled them to qualify again and win it again. These things have an incredible effect on football teams. 'You get your one shot. This is our one shot at the Europa League in 164 years. I can't believe that a football club with that story, with that history, very similar to ours, would really want to be a part of taking this away from us. 'A lot of Forest fans have reached out to me and said they don't want to get access to the tournament this way. 'I genuinely feel most right-minded football supporters would think that the right thing is for us to be in the competition.' While there's no reason to doubt that Parish has heard from some magnanimous Forest supporters, who do believe that entry into the higher competition for their side would feel hollow, it's probably fair to say they're in the minority. And if any of those fans are feeling pangs of guilt, or that they have unfairly benefited from another club's misfortune and will somehow not be able to enjoy a potential Europa League campaign because it hasn't been 'earned'… well, they shouldn't worry about that. It's tough not to feel enormous sympathy for the Crystal Palace fans, who may have been dreaming of trips to Rome and Porto and booking hotels for the final in Istanbul, and who haven't experienced European football since the Intertoto Cup in 1999. This won't spoil the glorious day when they beat Manchester City and won the FA Cup back in May, but it takes the edge off. Equally, the Crystal Palace coaching staff and players, who worked hard to achieve the greatest moment in the club's history, but also the greatest moment in most of their careers. Again, this won't spoil that day, but part of the reward has been taken away: it's a little like getting a promotion at work but not the pay rise. Advertisement But the more Parish speaks, the less and less sympathy you have for him, the others in charge of the club, and perhaps even Palace as an institution. One of the reasons Palace are in this mess is that, by Parish's own admission, they missed several emails from UEFA reminding them of the rules. That's pretty laughable, even before you consider that the address they provided to receive crucial updates about rules and regulations was 'info@ That's the address you give to cranks complaining there's 13 per cent less meat in the pies than last season, or to journalists whose irritating questions you don't actually want to answer. Not for anything, you know, important. Furthermore, the football finance writer Kieran Maguire reported last week that the Premier League had circulated details to all club secretaries regarding the change in regulations, as far back as October 2024, specifically referencing multi-club ownership considerations. This email was sent by the Football Association to all Premier League club secretaries in October 2024 advising them of changes to rules relating to UEFA Multi Club ownership rules. It would be difficult for a Premier Leagueclub to deny they receive emails from the FA. — Kieran Maguire (@KieranMaguire) July 13, 2025 Of course it 'feels' unfair that the Palace players, coaches and fans will be denied something that they have earned on the pitch. It is unfortunate timing that Palace qualified for Europe in the year that UEFA belatedly decided to enforce their rules more stridently, having also expelled Irish Cup winners Drogheda United for similar reasons. It is a nonsense that UEFA can say, with a straight face, that it's fine for Red Bull Salzburg and RB Leipzig to play each other but not Lyon and Palace. Equally, had Forest and Olympiacos been in the same competition, it's ludicrous that owner Evangelos Marinakis placing his shares in a 'blind trust' would have convinced anyone that he wasn't in charge of both clubs. But at the same time, it highlights how easy it was for Palace and Parish to avoid all of this. It's not Forest's problem that they can't keep up with their admin. It's not the first time that one team has benefited from another being kicked out of a competition. At the most extreme end, Denmark won the European Championship in 1992 after Yugoslavia were expelled from the competition. Clearly, the reason for the disqualification in that case — a devastating civil war — cannot be compared to this situation. Advertisement But there have been more comparable examples. In the FA Cup last season, Barnsley beat Horsham in the first round but were subsequently expelled for fielding an ineligible player: Horsham did not sheepishly decline the chance to go through in their place. LAFC weren't among the initial qualifiers for this year's Club World Cup, but gladly took their spot (via a playoff) when Club Leon were barred over multi-club ownership violations. Going back a little way, to the 1996-97 Premier League, Middlesbrough would have avoided relegation were it not for a three-point penalty imposed for not fulfilling a fixture. Coventry City, the team who survived as a result, presumably did not feel too bad about benefiting. This is all subject to a prospective appeal from Palace to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which is expected to come at some point soon. If that succeeds and Palace are restored to the higher competition, it would be tricky for Forest to complain too much. But if things remain as they are, any sense that Forest should feel bad about stepping up as a result of Palace's carelessness is misguided.

The Independent

11-07-2025

Business
The Independent

Crystal Palace learn European fate

Crystal Palace have been demoted from the Europa League to the Conference League by UEFA due to multi-club ownership rules. The decision, announced on 11 July, stems from co-owner John Textor's significant stake in both Crystal Palace and French club Lyon. UEFA regulations prohibit individuals from having control over more than one club participating in the same European competition, with Lyon given precedence. Nottingham Forest are expected to take Crystal Palace 's place in the Europa League, having finished seventh in the Premier League last season. Crystal Palace are likely to appeal UEFA's decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, meaning the final Europa League spot remains unconfirmed.

Stop blaming loophole-users Man United, Nottingham Forest and Chelsea - getting kicked out of the Europa League is Crystal Palace's fault, writes IAN LADYMAN