Crystal Palace have lost their appeal against demotion from the Europa League and will take their place in the Conference League. The court of arbitration for sport confirmed on Monday that the FA Cup winners were unsuccessful in overturning the decision made by European football’s governing body to punish them for contravening its rules over multi-club ownership.
Uefa demoted Palace to the Conference League after they were deemed to have breached regulations because John Textor held shares in Palace and Lyon, who also qualified for the Europa League. He has since sold his 43% stake to his fellow US businessman Woody Johnson.
At the Cas hearing held on Friday in Lausanne, a Palace delegation led by the chair, Steve Parish, said Textor had never held a decisive influence in the boardroom and was no longer at the club. They are also understood to have argued they had been singled out by Uefa and that its rules had not been applied consistently.
Palace are believed to have presented evidence that only members of the European Club Association (ECA) were informed that Uefa’s 1 March deadline for setting up a blind trust to comply with multi-club regulations could be extended until 31 May. That enabled the Nottingham Forest owner, Evangelos Marinakis, to place the club into a blind trust at the end of April. Marinakis also owns Olympiakos.
Cas said: “After considering the evidence, the panel found that John Textor, founder of Eagle Football Holdings, had shares in CPFC and OL and was a Board member with decisive influence over both clubs at the time of Uefa’s assessment date. The panel also dismissed the argument by CPFC that they received unfair treatment in comparison to Nottingham Forest and OL. The panel considered that the Uefa regulations are clear and do not provide flexibility to clubs that are non-compliant on the assessment date, as CPFC claimed.”
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Forest, who qualified for the Conference League after finishing seventh in the Premier League, are expected to be promoted to the Europa League. Palace are due to have a Conference League playoff against the losers of the Europa League qualifier between Norway’s Fredrikstad or Midtjylland of Denmark. The first leg is scheduled at Selhurst Park on 21 August, three days before Forest play there in the Premier League.
Parish was asked about the appeal at Sunday’s Community Shield, when Palace beat Liverpool on penalties, and said: “I’m determined that we get the right outcome – if we don’t, we’ll have to look at if there’s any steps after that. But after Friday, I don’t understand how we can not be in the competition.”
Palace have estimated that missing out on the Europa League could cost them up to £20m and it is understood they will consider making a claim against Uefa for compensation.
