Can’t say I normally have any sympathy for Crystal Palace fans but this is absolutely disgraceful | OneFootball

Crystal Palace fans watched on as their club won their first ever major trophy in May.

The Eagles winning the FA Cup at Wembley.

Not only could Crystal Palace fans glory in winning a trophy, another massive bonus coming as part of the FA Cup winning package.

The South London club set to play in their first ever major European competition (unless counting the Anglo-Italian an/or Intertoto…).

A place in the prestigious 2025/26 Europa League for Crystal Palace fans and their players to look forward to.

Only one problem…

On Friday (11 July 2025), UEFA confirmed that Crystal Palace have had their Europa League place taken off them and dumped instead into the far less prestigious (and far less financially lucrative) Conference League.

John Textor is the majority shareholder in the company ‘Eagle Football’ that owns 43 per cent of Crystal Palace and also controls Lyon with a 77 per cent stake.

The UEFA ‘rules’ are that you can’t ‘own’  two clubs that are playing in the same European competition, both Lyon and Palace having qualified for the 2025/26 Europa League. So Lyon can stay in the Europa League because they had a higher domestic league placing (6th) than Palace (12th). You don’t have to have a majority shareholding in both clubs, it can be a minority shareholding that stops the two clubs both competing, ‘decisive influence’ UEFA call it.

However, there are ‘rules’ and then there are ‘rules’…the reality is that UEFA just basically make it up as they go along and a bit like FFP/PSR in the Premier League and within UEFA generally, the ‘rules’ can be changed and/or stretched.

I don’t think anybody should be able to have ownership of more than one club, not even minority ownership. Certainly, if somebody has any kind of ownership in more than one club, then the two clubs shouldn’t be allowed to be in the same competition.

However, if MCO (Multi Club Ownership) is allowed, then all clubs/owners should be treated equally.

Manchester City and Girona were allowed to both compete in the 2024/25 Champions League.

In the 2023/24 season, despite Tony Bloom having ownership/major stakes in Brighton and Belgian club Union St Gilloise, both were allowed to compete in the Europa League.

In the later stages of the 2024/25 Premier League campaign, it was announced that the Forest owner had made changes to his ownership of the club, so that both they and Olympiakos (who Marinakis also owns) could both play in the 2025/26 Champions League. No wonder he got so upset after going to all that trouble as Forest’s Champions League hopes collapsed…

So why is it different for Crystal Palace fans and their club?

Well, there was a UEFA deadline of 1 March 2025 where all the dual ownership issues had to be sorted by.

Basically, those with ownership of two clubs simply do the paperwork, put their shares of one club into a ‘blind trust’, move their shareholding to somebody else. Essentially it is all just a case of then everybody pretending the dual ownership/influence doesn’t exist.

A total joke of course, as surely if there was any kind of serious intent to have proper ‘rules’, surely then at the very least it should be based on what the ownership of clubs was before those league campaigns kicked off. Not something that can be conveniently changed late on.

The problem for Palace is that on 1 March 2025 they weren’t making their plans or Europe, instead they had a fifth round FA Cup game against Millwall. A million miles away from thinking of beating Man City in the final.

Hopefully Crystal Palace fans will still make the Europe League but it looks very doubtful, with Nottingham Forest seemingly set to swap places, Forest getting Europa League and Palace getting their Conference League place.

Crystal Palace have said they intend to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport but sadly, I would be amazed if the UEFA decision is overruled.

It sums up modern football though.

If you have money, power, influence, if you know how to work the system, if you have the best lawyers, accountants, administrators, it can just as important, even more important at times, than having the best manager and players.

I remember back in the day there used to be a claim, probably a bit of an urban myth, that if you ever suddenly found yourself not knowing what to do when faced with a problem involving the benefits system, social security etc. That your local pub or social club would always have a character who was an expert in terms of navigating the system and how to work it to your best advantage, so for the price of a pint or two, the naive and inexperienced could get pointed in the right direction and get the best outcome. Whilst at the same time, those that didn’t have access to this knowledge and what to do at what point, would end up running the risk of missing out on what they should have been entitled to.

This is how it feels with Crystal Palace compared to the usual suspects. The ones who have the knowledge, money and power, who know perfectly well how to work the system, again and again.

The likes of Manchester City have stakes in numerous clubs, into double figures, many others have stakes in three or more.

As I say, I don’t usually have any sympathy for Crystal Palace fans (or fans of any other club apart from Newcastle United!), but this is disgraceful. The owners of Manchester City, Brighton and many others who quite openly have ownership in multiple clubs, yet are able to see them compete in the same European competitions because they are savvy enough to do the right paperwork, to know how to navigate the UEFA rules/system. Whilst basically, Crystal Palace fans are the ones to suffer because their club and owners have been guilty of naivety, of not doing what was needed by a certain date in order to pretend there is no ‘ownership’ of more than one club.