- Eagles won first major trophy in 2025
- Took appeal to Court of Arbitration for Sport
- Must make do with Conference League
The Eagles won their first major trophy in 2025, seeing off Manchester City in historic style at Wembley. Success there earned them qualification for the Europa League. A multi-club ownership saga quickly broke out, though, with UEFA initially dumping Palace into the Conference League.
The Premier League outfit took their legal argument to the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS), hoping to be granted permission to grace the competition they believed they had secured the right to play in.
However, CAS has ruled against Palace. The Eagles did not put arrangements in place regarding multi-club ownership prior to UEFA’s deadline on March 1. John Textor did eventually sell his stake in the club to Woody Johnson – owner of the New York Jets NFL franchise.
Textor is also involved with French giants Lyon, who secured Europa League qualification themselves in 2024-25. Palace argued that he never had decision-making influence at Selhurst Park, but that argument has fallen on deaf ears.
A statement from CAS 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.”
The ruling represents a severe financial blow to Palace, who could lose around £20 million ($27m) in prize money. It is claimed that the Eagles could now open another legal case as they seek financial compensation.
While Palace – who added the Community Shield to their trophy collection when seeing off Liverpool in the 2025-26 curtain-raiser – have been left frustrated, Nottingham Forest have been bumped up from the Conference League and into the Europa League
