Nottingham Forest are awaiting the verdict of Crystal Palace’s CAS appeal, with one UEFA argument looking potentially strong enough to ensure the Reds retain their Europa League spot.
An undoubtedly complicated situation, Steve Parish delivered a cagey update on the CAS hearing after Friday’s court procedure in which Palace were looking to overturn UEFA’s decision to demote them to the Conference League.
Standing to benefit from Palace’s demotion are Forest, who may be feeling confident given that football governance experts have rubbished Palace’s arguments surrounding a suggestion that Forest were given an unfair chance to pass UEFA’s multi-club ownership rules.
Among this, UEFA won’t want to see their rules unfavourably brought into question by Palace, with one of their counter-arguments to the Eagles’ appeal looking particularly strong.
Europa League trophy
Photo by Kristian Skeie – UEFA
UEFA argument in CAS hearing could benefit Nottingham Forest
Before the appeal was even required, John Textor was confident that Palace would keep their Europa League spot, despite his involvement in the club being the very reason this situation transpired.
Textor was involved in the ownership of both Palace and Lyon at the time when the clubs would have to prove to UEFA that they weren’t in a multi-club ownership (MCO) group, with the failure to prove this before the 1st of March deadline the reason for the breach.
Palace and Lyon haven’t been the only teams to fall victim to UEFA’s MCO rules, as CAS have already heard another appeal for the very same issue that the governing body now looks to be using as a counter-argument.
According to the Daily Mail: “The panel heard UEFA’s defence, in which they are understood to have pointed out that there is a precedent that should be adhered to, and that it was delivered here (albeit via video conference) less than two months ago.
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“On June 16, League of Ireland side Drogheda United appealed against their removal from the Conference League due to non-compliance with UEFA’s rules on MCO. The Irish side and fellow qualifiers Silkeborg IF are owned by the same group.
“Drogheda had argued that the March 1 date for submissions, brought forward for a season by UEFA from the original June 1 deadline, had not been communicated properly.
“It was a similar argument to one of the elements of Palace’s case – in that the only information they had from UEFA was delivered to a generic email address and not an actual person. That claim, and the appeal itself, was swiftly rejected, as was a further allegation of unequal treatment, which again echoed large parts of Palace’s argument.”
It could be difficult for CAS not to side with its previous ruling on the identical situation, which is good news for Forest, as the financial gain of competing in the Europa League is significant.
The financial advantage of the Europa League for Nottingham Forest
From a purely on-pitch perspective, it could be argued that a place in the Conference League would suit both sides more, given that the standard of opponent would make Forest or Palace one of the favourites to win the trophy.
However, Nottingham Forest News spoke to football finance expert, Adam Williams, to outline the financial advantage of a place in the more prestigious competition.
He said: “Every win in the Europa League league phase is worth about £400,000, while a draw is worth about £130,000. If you win all your matches, that can take you to the eight-figure mark. Then, you get a fee based on your position in the table, which can be up to around £2.5m. So you’re getting close to £15m there.
“By contrast, Chelsea got about £15m for winning the Conference League outright. If Forest win the Europa League, they’ll get at least £30m all told.”
All eyes now turn to Monday for the CAS verdict, but if UEFA’s argument is as strong as it seems, Forest could be in line to benefit from this financial boost.