Crystal Palace have lodged an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against their demotion to the Conference League.
A UEFA panel earlier this month recommended that Palace were denied entry to the Europa League, in which they qualified by winning the FA Cup last season, after it found the Premier League side and Ligue 1’s Lyon breached the governing body of European football’s multi-club ownership rules.
A CAS release on Tuesday confirmed receipt of Palace’s appeal. The London club are requesting readmission to the Europa League with Nottingham Forest’s admission rejected. Forest had replaced Palace in the competition by virtue of being the Premier League club with the highest finishing position not already qualified. Failing that, Palace are requesting to be admitted in place of Lyon, who earned priority over their English counterparts due to their superior league placing — sixth in Ligue 1, compared to Palace’s 12th-place Premier League finish.
CAS said Palace’s case “will be an expedited procedure with an operative decision (without grounds) to be rendered on or before 11 August 2025.” However, the qualifying play-off draw for the Conference League, which will include the English participant, takes place a week earlier on August 4.
Last week, Palace chairman Steve Parish suggested Forest had played a significant role in the club’s swapping European competitions. “We’re led to believe that’s the issue,” Parish said. “If there wasn’t someone who wanted to get in as a consequence, then there wouldn’t be a problem.”
Eagle Football Holdings — the company run by American businessman John Textor — has a stake in both Palace and Lyon. UEFA rules state that two clubs cannot compete in the same competition if they are owned to a certain threshold of influence by the same person or entity. Eagle Football has a 77 per cent stake in Lyon, while The Athletic reported in June that Textor agreed to sell its 43 per cent stake in Palace to Woody Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets. UEFA’s rules state a deadline of March 1 to show proof of multi-club ownership restructuring.
Lyon’s financial difficulties had thrown their European participation into doubt, with the French football authorities relegating them to Ligue 2, which would have seen them surrender their place in the Europa League, at the end of the season, only for the club to successfully appeal that decision.
In an interview with Sky Sports, Parish described the decision from UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) as a “terrible injustice,” saying his club had been “locked out of a European competition on the most ridiculous technicality.”
Textor, meanwhile, who stepped down from his role as Lyon’s president, said in an Instagram post: “A black eye for UEFA that will never fade. We trusted that truth would prevail, did everything they asked, even dismantled a partnership that worked for the fans. Football must be played on the pitch, by players, not by bureaucrats.”
In July 2024, UEFA cleared multi-club pairs Manchester City and Girona (Champions League), and Manchester United and Nice (Europa League), to compete in the same tournaments due to off-field restructuring. The body said the concerned investors made necessary changes to ensure no one has “control or decisive influence” over both teams.
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