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More good news for Palace as Lyon relegated

The ongoing threat to Crystal Palace’s participation in the Europa League next season may have evaporated after Lyon, the French side which had been part of the same multi-club ownership model, were relegated to Ligue 2 because of serious financial issues.

It was the fact that 43 per cent of Palace belonged to Eagle Football Holdings, a company run by US businessman John Textor and also the owners of Lyon, that amounted to a breach of Uefa competition rules.

Even after it was announced on Monday that Textor had agreed the sale of his stake to American billionaire Woody Johnson, it became clear that Palace’s participation remained under threat because Uefa’s rules do not appear to allow for any flexibility for ownership changes after the March 1 deadline.

But the news of Lyon’s relegation, announced on Tuesday night, should now resolve the situation unless the French club can respond with a successful appeal. With demotion to the second tier, their sixth-place finish in Ligue 1 is voided and they are no longer deemed to have qualified for next season’s European competition.

The National Committee for the Oversight and Financial Management of Clubs in France (DCNG) announced Lyon’s relegation after a final review of the club’s financial file.

Prior to this dramatic development with Lyon, Palace were still sweating on a potentially tricky meeting of Uefa’s Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) on Friday.  The CFCB could have ruled that Palace must play in the Europa Conference League instead, which would mean a significant drop in income for the club.

The rules do not make any dispensation if a club changes the ownership structure after the deadline but before the start of the new season.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has already upheld a decision by Uefa to exclude the Irish Premier Division club Drogheda. The club is owned by the US-based Trivela Group which also owns the Danish side Silkeborg, who are also in the Europa Conference League.

 

 

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