Crystal Palace lose appeal against their demotion from Europa League

By Rachel Steinberg, PA

Crystal Palace have lost their appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against their demotion from the Europa League and will play in the Conference League this season.

The FA Cup winners were demoted to the Conference League by European football’s governing body Uefa on July 11th after it determined that as of March 1st, American businessman John Textor had control or influence at both Palace and French club Lyon.

Nottingham Forest – who travel to Selhurst Park for Palace’s first home league game on August 24th – are expected to take the Europa League place.

A CAS media release read: “The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dismissed an appeal by Crystal Palace FC (CPFC) against UEFA, Nottingham Forest FC and Olympique Lyonnais (OL) concerning a decision by UEFA to remove CPFC from the UEFA Europa League 2025/2026 due to a breach of UEFA multi club ownership regulations.

“As a result, CPFC will be admitted to compete in the UEFA Conference League 2025/2026.

“The appeal sought to annul the decision by the UEFA Club Financial Control Body on 11 July 2025 which found CPFC and OL non-compliant with multi club ownership regulations.

“Alongside the annulment of the decision, CPFC requested readmission to the UEFA Europa League with Nottingham Forest or OL’s admission rejected.

“After considering the evidence, the Panel found that John Textor, founder of Eagle Football Holdings, had shares in CPFC and OL and was a Board member with decisive influence over both clubs at the time of UEFA’s assessment date.

“The Panel also dismissed the argument by CPFC that they received unfair treatment in comparison to Nottingham Forest and OL. The Panel considered that the UEFA Regulations are clear and do not provide flexibility to clubs that are non-compliant on the assessment date, as CPFC claimed.

“This was an expedited procedure, with an operative decision rendered two and a half weeks after the appeal, filed on 21 July 2025. Unless Parties request confidentiality, a full Award (with grounds) will be made available on the CAS website in due course.”

Uefa declined to comment on the CAS panel’s decision, while Palace did not make any immediate comment.

Textor has now sold his stake in Palace, with the purchase of his shares by New York Jets owner Woody Johnson completed in late July.

Palace chairman and co-owner Steve Parish, speaking after the Eagles beat Liverpool to lift the Community Shield, said his team would look for any alternative solutions should the verdict not go their way.

He said: “If we don’t get the right outcome, then we will have to look if there’s any steps after that.”