Crystal Palace Loses Appeal In CAS Over Relegation From Europa League

Crystal Palace failed to play in the Europa League after losing an appeal at CAS (Instagram/@cpfc).

JAKARTA - The Sports Arbitration Court (CAS) has rejected Crystal Palace's appeal over their relegation from the Europa League to the UEFA Conference League regarding the multiclub ownership rules (MCO).

The UEFA Club's Financial Supervisory Agency (CFCB) last month ruled that Palace was too close to its holdings with Olympique Lyonnais (Lyon).

Palace's appeal consists of three points, namely the CFCB's unfair decision, Nottingham Forest's refusal to advance to the Europa League, and Lyon's refusal to participate. All three were rejected by CAS.

Nottingham Forest is the beneficiary. They were promoted from the UEFA Conference League to play in the Europa League replacing Palace.

Unfortunately, Palace had to enter the UEFA Conference League in the playoffs later this month, where they will face a team that lost the Europa League match between Fredrikstad and the second FC Midtjylland - the leg will be played on Thursday, August 14, 2025.

Palace qualified for the Europa League after beating Manchester City in the FA Cup final in May 2025. However, seven days later, Paris Saint-Germain's victory in the French Cup final (Coupe de France) saw Lyon move up from the UEFA Conference League to the Europa League.

If two clubs violate MCO regulations, a team 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.

All of them lead to John Textor's share ownership, through Eagle Football Holdings Limited, which owns controlling shares in Lyon and 43.9 percent of Palace's shares.

The Premier League club argued that Textor had no influence in Palace management.

However, regulations related to influence in clubs prohibit any party from holding more than 30 percent of total share ownership in more than one club in the same European tournament.

Textor last month completed selling his Palace stake to New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, but UEFA rules are set by the club's situation as of March 1, 2025.

Prior to this summer, no clubs were disqualified from European tournaments due to the MCO rules.

Palace is the third club to be affected by the implementation of new stricter regulations, requiring clubs to comply with rules no later than March 1, instead of June 3 as in previous seasons.

Previously, the Irish club, Drogheda United, was dropped from the UEFA Conference League due to a conflict of ownership with the Danish club, Silkeborg IF. Then, there is Gyori ETO from Hungary to take part in the UEFA Conference League because FC DAC 1904 Dunajska Streda was disqualified.

Drogheda won the FAI Cup in November 2024, with the Irish league running on a calendar basis. Silkeborg only qualified for the UEFA Conference League on June 1, 2025 - three months after the new MCO deadline.

Drogheda and FC DAC 1904 Dunajska Streda appealed to CAS, but lost.

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 deadline approached, Palace had not yet played the FA Cup Fifth Round matches.

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

Earlier this year, Club Leon from League MX was expelled from the 2025 Club World Cup due to a conflict of ownership with another Mexican club, Pachuca, which showed a change in approach to MCO from FIFA.

The decision from CAS comes after Palace beat Liverpool and lifted the Community Shield trophy at Wembley on Sunday, August 10, 2025.

With a score of 2-2 after 90 minutes, Palace won 3-1 on penalties to lift their second trophy within three months.