Crystal Palace have lost their legal battle to play in the Europa League and will have to compete in the Conference League, according to reports.
Palace launched an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over their demotion from the Europa League to the Conference League for allegedly breaking UEFA’s multi-club ownership rules after UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) ruling.
Furious Palace officials appealed the decision in a gruelling 10-hour session at CAS in Lausanne on Friday. Relegation to UEFA’s third-tier competition will mean a revenue loss of up to £20m.
The FA Cup and Community Shield winners must now go into the qualifying round for UEFA’s third-tier European competition. And Nottingham Forest will play in the Europa League instead.
Palace will now have to play a two-legged qualifier against Fredrikstad or FC Midtjylland to qualify for the Conference League league phase.
Joel Ward of Crystal Palace holds aloft the Emirates FA Cup Trophy
Crystal Palace won the FA Cup in May (Image: Getty Images)
The Eagles found themselves in this situation through former shareholder John Textor, who is the majority owner of Lyon, who qualified for the Europa League through their Ligue 1 finish. Lyon were awarded the place due to finishing higher in their respective league.
Textor failed to put his Palace shares in a blind trust by the March 1 deadline, seemingly believing they would not win the FA Cup, which led to Palace being demoted to the Conference League by UEFA.
Palace originally earned a spot in the Europa League for the first time in their history after winning the FA Cup for the first time in May, beating Manchester City 1-0.
UEFA previously accepted Manchester City and Girona into the Champions League in the 2024/25 season, and Manchester United and Nice into the Europa League last season, who were in potential conflict with the multi-club ownership.
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However, all clubs were able to demonstrate that they had made changes that brought them into compliance with the multi-club ownership rule.
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