Crystal Palace forced to wait on crunch UEL decision from UEFA chiefs

CRYSTAL Palace will have to wait until at least Monday to discover if they have been cleared to play their first European campaign.

Palace’s “Multi Club Ownership” issues were among a number of similar matters being considered by Uefa finance chiefs.

But the meeting at Uefa headquarters in Nyon has so many cases to consider that final verdicts will not be announced until after the weekend.

Palace legal beaks and executives pleaded their case to Uefa’s Club Financial Control Body, with their arguments strengthened by Lyon’s relegation from France’s top flight over the club’s soaring debts.

The Selhurst club have been made to wait for the green light since their FA Cup Final win over Manchester City because Lyon are owned by the Eagle Football group owned by US businessman John Textor, who had a 44.9 per cent stake in Palace despite being kept at arms length by Steve Parish and Americans Josh Harris and Dave Blitzer.

Despite his limited role at Selhurst Park, Uefa were concerned that Textor’s ownership stake breached regulations stating that clubs which are part of a shared ownership group cannot compete in the same competition.

Those rules saw Manchester United owners Ineos park their shares in French side Nice in a blind trust to allow both to play in the Europa League last season, with Chelsea owners BlueCo withdrawing from their hands-on role at Strasbourg.

And Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis stepped back from any official role at the City Ground in April, to meet the Uefa requirements, when he hoped the East Midlanders would qualify for the Champions League alongside Greek side Olympiacos.

Palace, though, did not make any changes to the ownership structure ahead of the Uefa deadline for next season - a situation complicated by Blitzer’s ownership of Danish side Brondby, who qualified for the Conference League.

And as Lyon finished sixth in Ligue 1, compared to Palace’s 12th-placed ranking in the Prem, they take priority over the South East London side. 

Despite that, the FA have backed the Eagles and Palace’s cause was also aided by Textor’s announcement that he is selling his Palace shares to New York Jets owner and former US ambassador to the UK Woody Johnson in a £190m deal.

That sale still has to be cleared by the Premier League, although it is not expected to be held up.

Textor now faces being ejected from the Lyon hotseat as well, with investment fund Ares, who loaned the US businessman £330m to fund his takeover in 2023, seeking to install new leadership.

Lyon’s relegation means they would not be nominated to take up their Europa League place, although the club are appealing against the decision of French football’s financial regulator.

But if Lyon were to win their appeal after being excluded from the official entry list, Nyon chiefs anticipate they are likely to apply to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to be reinstated.

That would probably be at the expense of Strasbourg, who finished seventh in Ligue 1 and are expected to be nominated in Lyon's place.

However, insiders anticipate that Palace would not be retrospectively prohibited from competing if Uefa has cleared their entry. 

Meanwhile, Irish side Drogheda has been expelled from the Uefa Conference League.

This is due to multi-club ownership rules in a similar circumstance to Palace.