July 11 – The only route left open for Crystal Palace to retain their Europa League spot next season is through an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after UEFA ruled today that multi-club ownership rules had been breached at March 1, UEFA’s deadline given to the clubs to resolve the ownership conflict.
UEFA confirmed Olympique Lyonnais will play in the 2025/26 UEFA Europa League while Crystal Palace will be dropped to the Conference League. Nottingham Forest will take Palace’s place in the Europa League.
This is despite the ownership conflict having been resolved with the sale of John Textor’s Eagle Holdings’ stake in Palace to US investor Woody Johnson last month.
Initially it looked like the investigation was not required and Crystal Palace would be clear to play in the Europa League after Lyon were relegated for breaching French financial rules. That changed when the French financial control authority (DNCG) decided not to relegate Olympique Lyonnais to Ligue 2.
Textor had by this stage sold his stake in Crystal Palace but it was after UEFA’s March deadline.
In a statement UEFA said:” Olympique Lyonnais will not be excluded from the 2025/26 UEFA club competitions.
“Consequently, the CFCB First Chamber pursued the assessment of the documentation submitted by Olympique Lyonnais and Crystal Palace and concluded that the clubs breached, as at 1 March 2025, the multi-club ownership criteria foreseen in Art 5.01 of the UEFA Club Competition Regulations.
For this reason, and in accordance with the provisions set in Art. 5.02, 5.03 and 5.04 of the UEFA Club Competitions Regulations, the CFCB First Chamber decided:
- To accept Olympique Lyonnais’ admission to the 2025/26 UEFA Europa League; and
- 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.”
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