The Europa League trophy and Crystal Palace’s bus parade (Photo by Ryan Pierse, Alex Broadway/Getty Images)
Crystal Palace could reportedly end up missing out on Europa League football next season due to UEFA’s rules about club ownership.
The Eagles qualified for the Europa League by winning the FA Cup final against Manchester City in the season just gone, but it’s unfortunately not quite as simple as that.
Lyon have also qualified for the Europa League due to their finishing position in Ligue 1, and Sky Sports have reported on how this impacts Palace.
Sky rightly note that two teams with the same owners can’t both compete in the same UEFA competition.
John Textor is the majority owner at Lyon, and also a co-owner of Palace, so that would see the French giants qualify ahead of the London outfit due to finishing in a higher league position.
Crystal Palace players celebrate winning the FA Cup final (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
Crystal Palace to appeal for Europa League place
Sky report that Palace will appeal and are confident they could still get in to the Europa League for next season.
However, if they don’t get a place approved, it could see Nottingham Forest bumped up into the Europa League.
Forest qualified for the Conference League, but if they take Palace’s place in the Europa, then the Eagles’ rivals Brighton could then be bumped up into the Conference League in Forest’s place.
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Crystal Palace surely deserve their shot at the Europa League
Palace could be a fine addition to the Europa League, so it would be a shame to see them lose out.
At the same time, though, this is perhaps a good reminder that we would ideally move away from one owner being able to buy multiple football clubs like this.
We’ve seen similar issues arise in the past with INEOS-owned Manchester United and Nice, while it could also prove to be an issue for Chelsea and Strasbourg in the future.
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