Crystal Palace received lightning news when they were deprived of the European Football Federation (UEFA) to attend the Europa League next season.
A UEFA council proposed to reject the Palace Europa League after concluding that the club violated UEFA's regulations on owning many clubs at the same time.
The announcement from UEFA said: “The first room of the Club Financial Control Commission (CFCB) launched an investigation for Crystal Palace and Lyon due to suspicion of violating the regulations on multi -club ownership under Article 5 of the UEFA European Cup regulations.
On July 9, 2025, after DNCG accepted to keep Lyon at Ligue 1, and after assessing the relevant conditions in the settlement agreement, CFCB determined that the two clubs violated the criteria of multi -club ownership as of March 1, 2025.
Therefore, according to the terms of 5.02, 5.03 and 5.04 of the UEFA European Cup regulations, CFCB decided:
- Accept Lyon to attend the Europa League 2025/26
- Refuse Crystal Palace to attend the Europa League 2025/26 and instead accept them to attend the 2025/26 Conference League 2025/26
This decision may be appealed to the Court of Sports Arbitration (CAS), according to Articles 62 and 63 of the UEFA charter. “
Crystal Palace is now expected to play in the 3rd European Division – UEFA Conference League, but they intend to appeal to CAS. Nottingham Forest, the 7th team in the Premier League and initially eligible for the Conference League, is likely to replace Palace in the Europa League.
According to UEFA's regulations, the next club in the domestic league will be replaced by the team from the European Cup, as long as the team meets the conditions and has appropriate competition licenses. However, the official confirmation will not be given until the CAS makes a decision.
“We are heartbroken,” Parish shared with Sky Sports. “This is a bad day for football. A terrible injustice. I believe no one wants to see this happen. I don't think UEFA wants. We are eliminated from the European Cup just because of a silly technical detail. The fans of every team should feel sad for us.”
The later statement of the Palace Club also expressed “extremely disappointing” with this decision.
Earlier, Palace won the right to attend the Europa League thanks to the FA Cup in May. Eberechi Eze was the only scorer in the victory of Man City, bringing the first major title in the history of the club.
However, UEFA's rules stated that no individual or legal entity entitled to control or affect more than a club attending the same European Club tournament. UEFA must ensure that the participating teams are independent entities to maintain fairness.
Palace's problem lies in the Eagle Football Group – currently holding 43% of the club's shares – controlled by John Textor, and also owns a control stake in Lyon, the club is eligible to attend the Europa League.
On June 3, the four main partners of Palace include Textor, President of Parish, Josh Harris and David Blitzer presented their views to the UEFA Council but was rejected. Although Textor has agreed to sell shares in Palace to the owner of NFL New York Jets – Woody Johnson – Woody Johnson – from June 23, the deal still needs to be approved by the Premier League, through the process of checking the owner and director's status, which usually takes about 2 months.
UEFA has also postponed a ruling related to Palace to wait for the relegation results of Lyon at Ligue 2, which Lyon won. Earlier, they were proposed to relegate due to financial issues by the French football supervisory agency (DNCG), and agreed with UEFA that they would not play in Europe if relegated.
“Everyone knows we are not in the model of multi -club ownership,” Parish said. “We do not share personnel, do not operate. We are entangled in a law that is not set for our case. I don't understand why the Council made such conclusions. We have proven that John has no influence on the club. This is a ridiculous decision. We will ask the appeal court to listen to our arguments.”
Notably, in July 2024, UEFA allowed the couple to have the same owners such as Man City – Girona (Champions League) and MU – Nice (Europa League) together, after the parties performed the restructuring of ownership to ensure no “decisive influence” from an individual or organization to both clubs.
