There was a euphoric joy at Wembley in the striped part of the stands. The Crystal Palace players, with Oliver Glasner on the sidelines, outsmarted Manchester City in what became a historic title for the club. This also meant that Palace would play in the Europa League next season. An incredible performance by the Premier League’s 12th best club, but it turned out to be too good to be true.
The result stands, but with the Crystal Palace owners also inside Lyon, who took the Europa League ticket in Ligue 1 with 5th place, UEFA has now made the decision to keep Palace out of the second best company in Europe.
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Here is the press release from UEFA:
-John Textor has previously been a majority shareholder in both Crystal Palace and Lyon, both of which qualified for the Europa League. However, he was unable to sell his stake in Palace before UEFA’s deadline of 1 March, and this has been a problem in this case. UEFA’s rules on multi-club ownership prohibit clubs from participating in the same European competition if they have the same owner. However, the owner must have a decisive influence on both clubs before it becomes a problem.
We’re guessing the Palace owners saw it as highly unlikely in March that the club would go all the way to the FA Cup final and sink one of the world’s best clubs.
It is now expected that Crystal Palace will appeal the decision to CAS. If the appeal does not succeed, it could have consequences for Nottingham Forest. According to The Guardian, Nottingham Forest will then take Crystal Palace’s place in the Europa League.
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There is a lot at stake here.
