Oliver Glasner John Textor Crystal Palace
(Credit: Imago/Getty Images)
Stefan Borson
Tue 10 June 2025 14:26, UK
Crystal Palace are working behind the scenes to resolve their ownership issues as they look to ensure they can play in the Europa League next season.
The Premier League side qualified for the competition after beating Manchester City in the FA Cup final last month to get their hands on their first-ever major trophy.
However, co-owner John Textor’s ownership of Lyon has presented a stumbling block after the French side have also qualified for the Europa League.
Uefa’s rules prohibit clubs controlled by the same owners or directors from competing in the same European competition.
Meanwhile, fellow shareholder David Blitzer owns Danish club Brondby, whose qualification for the Conference League means Palace are unable to drop down into that competition.
The Guardian reported on 5 June Uefa has rejected offers from Textor and Blitzer to put their shares into a blind trust to allow the south London club to compete in Europe following a meeting in Nyon, Switzerland, last week.
MORE FOOTBALL INSIDER STORIES
Finance expert Stefan Borson exclusively told Football Insider he is “surprised” Palace have breached the governing body’s rules.
It has now emerged Nottingham Forest have written to Uefa to raise concerns about Palace’s participation in the Europa League as they believe it would breach the multi-club ownership rules.
Forest qualified for the Conference League after finishing seventh in the Premier League table.
Everton
John Textor’s shares are causing an issue for Crystal Palace (Credit: Getty Images)
Crystal Palace face ‘serious’ issue after Uefa twist
Borson insisted this is a “serious” issue for Palace after how far the situation has escalated.
He told Football Insider: “The biggest surprise actually is if you read the rules, it doesn’t seem that the arrangement that Palace have with Eagle, it doesn’t seem that breaches the control rule anyway.
“If you read article 5, which is the integrity rule that they need to fix with the use of the blind trust on the face of it, I don’t see why they breached it anyway because he’s only got a minority holding. He’s clearly not running the club on a day-to-day basis.
“Now, the one little wrinkle that maybe the thing that Uefa have pointed to is, if you go in the back of Crystal Palace’s accounts in the related-party disclosures, it does refer to dealings between Crystal Palace and Molenbeek, which is of course an Eagle Holdings club, and also with Lyon, which again is another Textor club.
“Now, these are very small transactions. There are two loan players to Molenbeek, which are for about £70,000, and there’s one player sold to Lyon for about £1million.
“It would just be completely ridiculous if they lost their Europa League place because of those transactions.
“But there’s definitely an issue because, if it wasn’t a serious issue, it wouldn’t have got this far, and we wouldn’t know about it.
“The clock is ticking along, and they have got to sort it out really quickly.”
Club Stake (%)
Crystal Palace (England) 43
Botafogo (Brazil) 90
Olympique Lyonnais (France) 77.49
RWD Molenbeek (Belgium) 80
John Textor’s Eagle Football portfolio
Crystal Palace star rejects Tottenham move
In terms of on-field matters, Palace are at risk of losing Marc Guehi this summer.
Football Insider revealed on 2 June Guehi has already turned down a move to Tottenham in favour of a potential switch to Liverpool.
The Palace captain is out of contract in June 2026, making this summer the club’s best chance to secure a substantial fee for his services.
Newcastle United also remain in the mix after seeing four bids rejected for the 24-year-old last summer.
For more Crystal Palace and exclusive news, follow us onFacebook or join our brand newWhatsApp Channel for instant updates to be sent straight to your phone.
Related Posts