2 months ago
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Crystal Palace have been banned from the Europa League and moved into the Conference League after Uefa concluded the FA Cup winners were in breach of its multi-club ownership rules.
The ban had been expected after Lyon won their appeal against relegation to Ligue 2 this week, clearing them to take their place in the tournament.
Clubs with the same owner are barred from competing in the same Uefa competition if an individual or ownership group is considered to have a decisive influence over more than one of those teams.
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John Textor is Palace’s largest shareholder and the owner of Lyon. A 1 March deadline for resolving multi-club ownership issues was not met and although Textor recently agreed a deal to sell his Palace shares to the US billionaire Woody Johnson, the move has not been completed and was deemed to have come too late.
Palace, who have never played in a major European competition, are expected to appeal to the court of arbitration for sport. Nottingham Forest may be promoted from the Conference League to take Palace’s Europa League spot.
Uefa said in a statement that its Club Financial Control Body had concluded that the multi-club ownership criteria had been breached and had decided “to reject Crystal Palace’s admission to the 2025-26 Uefa Europa League and to accept Crystal Palace’s admission to the 2025-26 Uefa Conference League”.
Lyon qualified for the Europa League by finishing sixth in France’s top division and were relegated over financial issues. The club had agreed with Uefa that they would be excluded from its club competitions if they ended up in the second tier. Their higher league position last season gives them precedence for the Europa League spot.
Textor this month resigned from his leadership positions at Lyon, including from the board, and Michele Kang was named as the president and chair. Kang owns the club’s women’s team, OL Lyonnes, and other clubs including London City Lionesses.
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Palace’s four co-owners – Textor, Steve Parish, Josh Harris and David Blitzer – were part of a club delegation that attended a meeting at Uefa’s headquarters in Nyon and argued that Textor did not have a decisive influence at Selhurst Park.
That, though, did not convince Uefa and the governing body rejected an attempt by Textor and Blitzer to place their shares in a blind trust because they had missed the March deadline. Use of a blind trust has enabled other clubs with the same owners to play together in a Uefa competition.
