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

Crystal Palace fans watched on as their club won their first ever major trophy last month.

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 2025/26 Europa League for Crystal Palace fans and their players to look forward to.

Only one problem…

As things stand, Crystal Palace could be set to have their Europa League place taken off them.

John Textor is the majority shareholder in the company ‘Eagle Football’ that owns 40 percent of Crystal Palace and also controls Lyon.

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. 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 ‘bind 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 Europe, as UEFA could of course just change their ‘rules’, stretch them, find that actually Lyon and Palace can both play in the Europa League after all.

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.