Palace to argue that Uefa showed lack of consistency

Crystal Palace have obtained correspondence between leading European clubs and their lawyers which they hope will force Uefa to reinstate them to the Europa League.

The FA Cup winners have been relegated to Europe’s third-tier competition, the Conference League, because of a breach of strict rules on multi-club ownership relating to John Textor’s stake in Palace and his company’s ownership of Lyon. The French club are also playing in the Europa League this coming season.

Textor has now agreed to sell the Palace shares owned by Eagle Football Holdings to US billionaire Woody Johnson in a £160million deal, but Uefa says the club failed to complete a change of ownership before its March 1 deadline.

Palace will argue in an appeal hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on August 8 that Nottingham Forest, who are set to take their place in the Europa League, were given until April 29 for the club’s owner, Evangelos Marinakis, to divest himself of his directorship of the Premier League club.

The Times understands that, within the Palace bundle of evidence is the trust document — drafted for Forest by lawyers apparently recognised by Uefa as experts in this sector — that references a “preparatory period” extending to “30 April 2025”.

More relevant, however, is a letter from the legal department of the European Club Association to its powerful members on the matter.

On October 25 last year, a first email informed clubs of a change to multi-club ownership rules, with the deadline for any ownership restructuring brought forward from June 3 to March 1. This had been done, the letter explained, “to allow for sufficient time for the Uefa CFCB [Club Financial Control Body] to thoroughly carry out its assessment related to multi-club ownership”.

Such a significant shift in timings was likely to cause concern for some clubs, so within two hours further communication followed from the ECA’s legal department suggesting it was a soft deadline.

Uefa may also argue that the point regarding Forest is moot because Marinakis’s ownership of Olympiacos is not an issue when they are competing in the Champions League next season.

Nevertheless, Palace — who have been drawn to face either Fredrikstad, from Norway, or Midtjylland, from Denmark, in the Conference League play-off round — are expected to cite these as examples of a lack of clarity and consistency they hope will be met with sympathy by CAS. They may argue that these were new rules that sparked concern among clubs and led to the dialogue around the rigidity of the deadline.

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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

The Political Economy of Football V2

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