The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has confirmed that Crystal Palace have lodged an appeal against their demotion from the Europa League, with an expedited decision to be communicated on or before Aug. 11.
Palace qualified for the Europa League by beating Manchester City in the FA Cup final, but seven days later Paris Saint-Germain's victory in the Coupe de France final meant Lyon were promoted from the Conference League to also play in the Europa League.
UEFA's Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) ruled the Premier League club was too closely linked to Lyon.
John Textor, through Eagle Football Holdings Limited, had a controlling interest in Lyon and 43.9% of Palace. The Premier League club argued that Textor had no say in the running of the clubs, but regulations relating to decisive influence forbid any party from holding more than 30% of the total shareholding in more than one club in the same competition.
Textor has since agreed to sell his Palace stake to New York Jets owner Woody Johnson.
Multi-club ownership (MCO) rules state that if two clubs are in violation of the regulation, the club that finishes higher in the league will play in the European competition. Even though Palace (12th) won the FA Cup and Lyon (sixth) only qualified on a technicality, the league placing alone determined the right to play. This is contradictory to the competition rules for the Europa League, which prioritise domestic cup winners over those who qualify by league placing.
Palace's appeal has three strands: against the CFCB's decision, Nottingham Forest and Lyon.
Forest, who were due to enter the Conference League in the playoff round next month, will be promoted to the Europa League if Palace's appeal to CAS fails.
On the first appeal, Palace "seeks to annul the decision by the UEFA Club Financial Control Body on 11 July 2025 which found Crystal Palace and OL [Lyon] non-compliant with multi club ownership regulations."
Palace also "requests readmission to the UEFA Europa League 2025/2026 with Nottingham Forest's admission rejected."
In the final appeal, Palace asked for "readmission to the UEFA Europa League 2025/2026 with OL's admission rejected" -- which would mean there would be three Premier League teams in the Europa League, and no representative in the Conference League.
Palace are not guaranteed to play in the League Phase of the Conference League, as they must play a qualifier, while the financial rewards are far higher from playing in the Europa League.
The Conference League playoff round draw is on Aug. 4, which means Palace, Forest and their opponents may be left waiting for the result of the appeal for the confirmed fixture.
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Before this summer, no club had been removed from European competition due to MCO rules, but Palace became the third to be affected by a new stricter application of the regulations which required clubs to be compliant by March 1, rather than June 3 as in recent seasons.
Irish club Drogheda United were scratched from the Conference League due to an ownership conflict with Danish club Silkeborg IF, and Hungary's Győri ETO will take part in the Conference League with FC DAC 1904 Dunajská Streda removed.
Drogheda won the FAI Cup in November, with the Irish league run on a calendar basis. It wasn't until June 1 that Silkeborg qualified for the Conference League -- three months after the new MCO deadline. Drogheda and FC DAC 1904 Dunajská Streda appealed to the CAS, but lost.
Palace and Drogheda would both likely argue that it's unfair to place such restrictions on clubs that usually have no chance of qualifying for Europe.
When the March 1 deadline approached, Palace hadn't played their fifth round game in the FA Cup. For Drogheda, who finished ninth, they did already know they had European football, but Silkeborg (seventh) were not expected to do so and claimed a European playoff in Denmark only after finishing top of the relegation group.
Earlier this year, Liga MX's Club León were removed from the FIFA Club World Cup due to an ownership conflict with fellow Mexican club Pachuca, indicating a change in approach to MCO from football's regulatory bodies.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.