Skip to main content

Doubts about Palace Europe place likely to be resolved

Crystal Palace’s Europa League place could hinge on whether Uefa decides to allow the French club Lyon to take part in the competition next season.

Uefa’s Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) disqualified Lyon — owned by the Palace shareholder John Textor — from European competitions in December but allowed them to continue after the club met certain demands. Manchester United eliminated them from the Europa League at the quarter-final stage.

However, Lyon are being “carefully monitored” by the CFCB and if they are deemed to be in breach of a settlement agreement they could be disqualified from next season’s Europa League.

That should leave Palace, who qualified for the Europa League after winning the FA Cup, in the clear in relation to Uefa’s multiclub ownership rules, which obliged sister clubs to set up separate ownership structures before March 1 if they hoped to play in the same competition next season.

Rival clubs such as Nottingham Forest and Palace rivals Brighton & Hove Albion, who did take such steps to separate their ownership structures from those of other clubs in European competitions, could stand to benefit if Palace are excluded from the Europa League.

Forest — whose owner, Evangelos Marinakis, diluted his control of the club because he also owns the Greek team Olympiacos — could take the Europa League place, with Brighton, who finished a place below Forest in the Premier League, getting their Conference League spot.

Palace chiefs met the CFCB in Nyon, Switzerland, on Tuesday to present their case that, whatever happens to Lyon, they are not in breach of the rules as the clubs are not part of the same ownership group and do not share any staff, facilities or information.

Textor, an American businessman, owns 43 per cent of Palace’s shares but the club argue that he has no say over day-to-day operations. Textor, 59, has only 25 per cent of the voting rights at Palace, alongside Steve Parish, the chairman, and two other partners, Josh Harris and David Blitzer, and indeed has previously spoken about his frustration at the lack of influence he has at Selhurst Park. He has also been trying to sell his shares in Palace for months.

Multi-club ownership poses some dilemmas for Uefa, but the links here are relatively tenuous.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It's no deal say Spurs insiders over Taiwanese takeover

Senior figures at Tottenham Hotspur insisted on Friday that they had not been informed of any deal to sell Daniel Levy’s stake in the club. A business group, Eight Sports Capital — which is said to include a billionaire Taiwanese financier — claimed that it had an agreement in place to buy a 24.99 per cent stake in ENIC, the club’s majority owners, from Levy, who owns 29.88 per cent. The Times has been told Ng Wing Fai and Brooklyn Earick form part of the group, having both been linked previously to potential takeovers of the Premier League club. The Taiwanese businessman, Richard Tsai, is also said to be part of the consortium. He is reportedly worth £7 billion.  Last year Earick, the former DJ and tech entrepreneur, was part of an attempted £4.5 billion takeover, which was “unequivocally rejected” by Spurs.  An ENIC spokesperson said: “We can confirm that neither ENIC nor THFC are aware of any sale by Daniel Levy’s Family Trust of its minority stake in ENIC, THFC’...
Post a Comment
Read more

Reports about Charlton sale exaggerated

Reports have appeared in The Guardian and elsewhere that Charlton has been put up for sale. Richard Cawley is an authoritative local journalist who runs a South London Sport substack site.  He reached out to the club yesterday evening to ask for comment on The Guardian’s article. Early indications from the club have been that nothing has changed since the story about them seeking investment, except that it is now a different company doing it. Charlton have since managed to consolidate their place in the Championship, avoiding an instant return to League One, with their women’s side promoted to the WSL, returning to the top flight for the first time since 2007, although staying there is likely to be costly. It would be counter-intuitive for owners Global Football Partners not to progress the club when looking for investment, that the focus remains on driving it forward, that their spend this summer is in line with long-term planning and will see an increase in wages spent on players...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hull City's 'strange' loan

When football finance guru Kieran Maguire seems flashing lights in a club's loan deal, I become concerned.  He is the leading football finance expert in the UK. Hull City have borrowed £55m against their stadium and training ground yet they should get £30m from the Premier League before long.  What is going on? https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cpwel48y51do
Post a Comment
Read more