Nottingham Forest have written to Uefa to raise concerns about Crystal Palace’s planned partaking in the Europa League next season, arguing their Premier League rivals could be in breach of multi-club ownership rules.
Forest stand to gain if Palace are not permitted to play in Europe next season because they would take the London club’s place in the Europa League. There is scope for a legal battle given Forest believe they have grounds to play in the competition. The Forest owner, Evangelos Marinakis, who also owns Greek champions Olympiakos, placed his shares into a blind trust to comply with Uefa rules in the event that Forest qualified for the Champions League.
The belief at Forest is that there is a conflict of interest because the Palace shareholder John Textor also owns a stake in Ligue 1 club Lyon, who have provisionally qualified for the Europa League. Palace qualified for Europe after winning the FA Cup while Forest qualified for the Conference League after finishing seventh in the most recent Premier League season.
Textor is thought to be trying to find a solution in order to meet Uefa regulations. Last week Palace’s Textor and Steve Parish, the chairman, attended a meeting at Uefa’s headquarters in Nyon to fight their club’s case to play in Europe without reaching agreement. The Guardian reported that the blind trust option, in which Textor’s Palace shares would be placed in the hands of trustees next season, was rejected by European football’s governing body because the club missed the deadline for doing so.
Palace’s European position is under threat rather than Lyon’s, as Uefa rules state that the club ranked highest in their domestic championship will be given entry to the competition. Lyon’s sixth-place finish in Ligue 1 gives them precedence over Palace, who came 12th in the Premier League.
Forest declined to comment when contacted by the Guardian.
