Crystal Palace's banishment from the Europa League due to an administrative technicality exemplifies this grim reality. A club that earned its place in the Europa League after their staggering triumph in the FA Cup has been denied their rightful reward because of a missed deadline. A deadline which was entirely arbitrary and unfeasible for the club to comply with.
Football, for so many, is meant to be a release – a break from the pressures of working life and personal struggle. But increasingly, it feels like the sport is being governed by the same systems that exhaust us elsewhere. At times like these, it’s hard to remember why we fell in love with the game in the first place. A complete contrast to the feeling at Wembley 58 days ago.
_(Image: PA)_ Crystal Palace have never operated under a multi-club ownership model. Yet their demotion to the UEFA Conference League, triggered by John Textor’s minority stake in the club through Eagle Football Holdings, amounts to a negligent miscarriage of justice.
UEFA regulations state that “no individual or legal entity may have control or decisive influence over more than one club participating in a UEFA club competition”. Although the definition of decisive influence is ambiguous, UEFA use 30% ownership as its benchmark. Textor owns 50% of Eagle Football Holdings, which holds a 43% stake in Crystal Palace, meaning his individual stake in the club is just 21.5%, well below the supposed threshold.
However, the Club Financial Control Body somehow concluded that a conflict existed. Textor has never made decisions at Palace. There has been no sharing of resources, data, staff, or players between Palace and Lyon – nor any coordinated sporting strategy.
While Textor may have occasionally offered suggestions, this falls far short of decisive influence. He could not affect on-pitch performance. Chairman Steve Parish and recently departed Sporting Director Dougie Freedman controlled the day-to-day footballing operation, supported by the club’s respective managers during Textor’s time on the board.
_(Image: PA)_ UEFA’s multi-club ownership rules are designed to prevent conflicts of interest, aiming to avoid scenarios where clubs with shared ownership could manipulate results to benefit a common entity. Palace’s situation is not what those rules were intended to address. They pride themselves on being an independent south London club. It is their identity.
The issue centres on Textor, who will no longer be involved with Crystal Palace once the Europa League begins, following his agreement to sell his stake in the club to New York Jets owner and former U.S. Ambassador to the UK, Woody Johnson, on June 23rd.
There are no conflicts of interest to be found. The only thing Palace may be guilty of is an administrative oversight. Even so, the club did not believe the relevant rules would pose a problem, as Textor has never held the ability to make decisions.
On numerous occasions, Textor attempted to buy out his fellow American owners, Josh Harris and David Blitzer, in a bid to gain control of Crystal Palace, but he consistently failed. He then shifted his focus to purchasing fellow Premier League side Everton, seeking an English club through which he could implement his vision of a global network of teams under his control.
Textor always sought influence over an English club, but he was unable to achieve that at Palace – his interest elsewhere makes that abundantly clear. Parish and Palace are now being punished for breaching multi-club ownership rules, despite having rejected opportunities to join a multi-club operation. Nonsensical comes to mind.
Meanwhile, those who have undeniably benefited from the multi-club model, such as Manchester City and RB Leipzig, will remain free to play alongside their partner clubs in European competition due to the preposterous loopholes.
The rule states that no individual may exercise 'decisive influence' over multiple clubs in the same competition, yet this is inconsistently enforced. Albeit not at ownership level, Jürgen Klopp, Red Bull’s Global Head of Soccer, operates across both RB Leipzig and RB Salzburg without issue.
Crystal Palace will take their case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and likely fail in their appeal. But if UEFA had any sense, President Aleksander Čeferin would step in to correct this absurd injustice. It is in UEFA’s interest to see Palace compete in the Europa League – a fresh face in Europe’s second-most prestigious competition, having defied the odds to win the FA Cup.
_(Image: PA)_ UEFA desire to increase the teams playing European football. They launched the Europa Conference League just three years ago to broaden access. Every new club entering European competition should be a cause for celebration, proof of a thriving and inclusive structure. Palace’s success should have been one celebrated by UEFA.
Instead, they have tainted that narrative. By demoting Palace to the qualifying rounds of the Conference League, rather than granting them their rightful place in the Europa League league phase, they have diminished one of football’s most remarkable stories.