Crystal Palace are still waiting to find out if they are able to participate in next season’s Europa League.
A football finance expert has shared his view on whether Nottingham Forest would be in pole position to replace Crystal Palace in the Europa League if they are banned by UEFA.
Palace qualified for European football for the first time in their history after winning the FA Cup final by beating Manchester City 1-0 at Wembley.
However, the Eagles’ participation is not yet confirmed over fears they could fall afoul of UEFA’s rules on multi-club ownership – which prohibits two clubs featuring in the same competition.
The rules state: “No one may simultaneously be involved, either directly or indirectly, in any capacity whatsoever in the management, administration and/or sporting performance of more than one club participating in a UEFA club competition”.
Palace’s primary shareholder, John Textor, also owns a majority stake in Ligue One side Lyon, who finished sixth and also qualified for the Europa League.
It was reported that UEFA rejected Palace’s offer to put shares in a blind trust – a move that Manchester City and Manchester United did successfully in order to secure their participation was not scuppered despite links with Girona and Nice respectively.
Palace are said to have missed the deadline on this front and recently held an emergency summit with UEFA in Switzerland, where they explained that Palace and Lyon are not part of the same ownership group and ‘do not share any staff, facilities or information’.
Oliver Glasner won the Europa League in 2022 and will be desperate to avoid missing out with Palace. Image: GettyGetty
Stating that American businessman Textor only has 25 per cent voting rights, Palace believe the American businessman does not have a “decisive influence” despite a 43% stake.
Forest, who finished seventh to secure Conference League qualification, are taking an interest in the situation and have written a letter to UEFA expressing concern and asking for clarity about the situation.
Finance expert reveals why Nottingham Forest are interested in Crystal Palace’s UEFA case
But Kieran Maguire has his doubts about whether Forest stand to gain from Palace’s situation and said it would “harsh” to kick the South London outfit out of the Europa League when Barcelona were fined a mere €500,000 for financial fair play breaches last season.
Speaking on BBC Radio Nottingham, he explained: “I think the reason why Forest are pushing on this is that the money from the Europa League is more than twice the money from the Europa Conference League and has to be said, if you win the Europa League you qualify for the Champions League and that’s a huge incentive.
“It does seem very harsh on Palace, they won the competition fair and square. I think it is slim in the sense that if we take a look at what’s happened with some of the other breaches of rules, Barcelona overspent by €250 million euros last season and they were fined €500,000 euros and they weren’t booted out of the competition.
“I suspect what UEFA will do, it has to look at its own rulebook and then its a case of what is the appropriate penalty. Would it be more appropriate, for example, for Crystal Palace to be given a fine because it was an administrative error.”
Aware of the situation, Forest owner, Evangelos Marinakis moved to separate Forest’s ownership structure from his other club Olympiakos – though it didn’t matter in the end as the latter made the Champions League after winning the Greek Super League.
Textor has said he would sell his shares in order to secure Palace’s place in Europe and the club eagerly await the decision from UEFA.
Demoting Palace to the Conference League would not solve the issue either, as they would be in the same competition as Danish side Brondy, who majority shareholder David Blitzer has a stake in.
