Crystal Palace’s demotion puts issue of multi-club ownership models under microscope

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It has been a rollercoaster few days for Crystal Palace supporters, who went from the euphoria of a dramatic penalty shoot-out Community Shield victory over Liverpool at Wembley to the disappointment of seeing their demotion from the Uefa Europa League to the Uefa Conference League confirmed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The decision to uphold Uefa’s sanction against the FA Cup winners has once again placed football’s modern shared ownership structures under the spotlight. European regulations prohibit clubs under shared ownership from competing in the same tournament.

Palace, whose former part-owner John Textor also held a majority stake in French club Lyon, breached those rules after Lyon also qualified for the Europa League.

Textor sold his 43% stake in Palace in June, after the club had already secured Europa League football by winning the FA Cup. However, Uefa assessed ownership structures as of March 1, a deadline Palace missed for submitting a restructuring plan — a case of unfortunate timing.

The club’s appeal to CAS was dismissed, with the ruling confirming that Textor still had “decisive influence” at the point of assessment.

It is a bitter blow after what should have been a celebratory season, capped by Palace’s first major trophy in May, when they beat Manchester City in a dramatic FA Cup final. Nottingham Forest are the beneficiaries, stepping into Palace’s place in the Europa League.

Tensions between the two clubs may simmer, with Palace fans pointing fingers at Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis, who wrote to Uefa shortly after the FA Cup final to raise concerns about Palace potentially breaching multi-club ownership rules.

Forest themselves narrowly avoided a similar fate, with Marinakis also owning Olympiacos. Both sides were, at one stage, in line for Champions League qualification before Forest fell short on the final day.

Marinakis ensured compliance by relinquishing day-to-day control of Forest before the March deadline, resuming control later. The Greek billionaire has insisted Forest played no part in Palace’s demotion, describing it as a matter solely between the Selhurst Park club and Uefa, but Palace supporters are unlikely to be convinced.

The stakes are significant, with the Europa League offering up to £50 million (about R1.19 billion) more in prize money than the Conference League and a potential route into the Champions League — a pathway Tottenham Hotspur have previously exploited.

With American, Middle Eastern, and multi-club consortiums increasingly prominent in the game, the controversy surrounding overlapping ownership is unlikely to fade.

In the wake of this case, Uefa may face renewed calls to review both the timing and flexibility of their assessments.