Crystal PalaceRED To UEFA Conference League Amid Lyon Conflict

Crystal Palace must be lowered to the UEFA Conference League (Instagram/@cpfc).

JAKARTA - Crystal Palace has been demoted from the Europa League to the UEFA Conference League after the UEFA Club Financial Supervisory Agency (CFCB) ruled that the Premier League club was "too close" to Lyon.

Palace is now expected to take the case to the Sports Arbitration Court (CAS), as is the case with other clubs being eliminated this summer.

Nottingham Forest, which was supposed to enter the UEFA Conference League in the playoffs next month, will be promoted to the Europa League on the condition of an appeal from CAS.

This ruling means Palace is not guaranteed to play in the league phase because they have to play the qualifying round. Meanwhile, financial rewards are much higher if they play in the Europa League.

Palace qualified for the Europa League with the status of the 2024/2025 FA Cup champion, beating Manchester City in the final.

However, seven days later, Paris Saint-Germain's victory in the French Cup (Coupe de France) final against Reims saw Lyon promoted to play from the UEFA Conference League and Europa League.

This immediately raised concerns over the UEFA multiclub ownership rules, which prohibit any party from having significant interest in more than one club in the same tournament.

John Textor, the majority owner and chairman of Eagle Football Holdings, owns 77 percent of the shares in Lyon, but also owns 43.9 percent of Palace's shares.

UEFA regulations have a problem with double ownership above 30 percent although Palace argues that Textor has no role in managing the Premier League club.

Palace said last month that one of the New York Jets owners, Woody Johnson, had signed a legally binding agreement to buy Eagle Football Holding shares at Palace, with approval from the Premier League.

However, Palace has missed a deadline in March 2025 to comply with multiclub ownership rules.

"To be honest, I was surprised. We have done everything possible to separate ourselves from the club, as UEFA requested, with the sales process starting before the deadline, and the sales that will take place long before the draw."

"Now we have sold out the club I love, to help Palace supporters continue this dream year, just to make decisions off the pitch destroying the historic sporting victory," Textor told Reuters.

Under the rules of the MCO (Multiclub Ownership UEFA), if two clubs violate these regulations, the club that finishes higher in the league will play in European tournaments.

Even though Palace (the 12th place) won the FA and Lyon Cups (the sixth place) only escaped for technical reasons, it was the league rankings that determined the right to play.

This contradicts Europa League rules, which prioritize domestic cup winners rather than those who qualify by league rankings.

Situasi semakin memburuk setelah Lyon terdegradasi ke Ligue 2 karena masalah keuangan, yang tampaknya akan membuat mereka kehilangan tempat di Liga Europa.

However, Lyon won their appeal over the decision, which effectively confirmed their place in the Europa League and returned the MCO problem to UEFA.

Palace Chairman Steve Parish was also surprised by the decision.

"We were devastated. It was a bad day for football. It was a terrible injustice. I'm sure no one wants to see this."

"I don't think UEFA either wants to see this. We have been kicked out of the European tournament for a very ridiculous technical reason. All the fans of the clubs should be sad for us."

"Everyone knows we're not part of the multiclub system. We're stuck in rules that weren't made up for us."

"This is a ridiculous decision. We will ask the appeals court to listen to our arguments," Parish told Sky Sports.

There is also a conflict of ownership between Palace and Danish club Brondby, through David Blitzer.

However, CFCB agrees with this and Palace will qualify for the UEFA Conference League playoffs.

Meanwhile, 12 months ago, UEFA allowed Girona to play in the Champions League with a team of fellow City Football Group, Manchester City.

Manchester United are also allowed to participate in the Europa League, with Ineos, led by Jim Ratcliffe, also controlling Nice.

UEFA allowed the four clubs to be transferred to a "blind trust", a method to ensure there is no joint management or decision structure, and prohibit 18 months of inter-club transfers.

However, the UEFA has indicated that this is likely not to be available as a long-term solution - and in regulations for this season, the deadline for complying with financial rules was changed from June 1 to March 1, 2025.

Prior to this summer, no clubs were expelled from European tournaments due to the MCO rules, but Palace is now the third club to be affected by stricter regulatory implementation.

The Irish club, Drogheda United, was dropped from the UEFA Conference League due to a conflict of ownership with the Danish club, Silkeborg IF.

Drogheda won the FAI Cup in November, with the Irish league running on a calendar basis. Silkeborg only qualified for the UEFA Conference League on June 1, 2025--two months after the new MCO deadline. Drogheda appealed to CAS, but lost.

Both Palace and Drogheda will most likely argue that it is unfair to impose such restrictions on clubs that usually do not have a chance of qualifying for Europe.

When the March 1, 2025 deadline approached, Palace had not yet played their fifth round of matches in the FA Cup.

For Drogheda, who finished ninth, they already knew they would qualify for the European tournament, but Silkeborg (the seventh place) was not expected to do so and claimed European playoffs in Denmark only after finishing at the top of the relegation group.

Then, the Gyori ETO from Hungary will take part in the UEFA Conference League with FC DAC 1904 Dunajska Streda crossed out.

FC DAC 1904 Dunajska Streda has not yet been tried by CAS.

Earlier this year, Club Leon was expelled from the 2025 Club World Cup due to a conflict of ownership with another Mexican club, Pachuca, indicating a change in approach to MCO from the football regulatory body.