Crystal Palace have submitted an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after they were demoted to the Conference League by UEFA.
The Eagles’ FA Cup win initially granted them a spot in the Europa League but multi-club ownership rules saw them drop down as American businessman John Textor owns a stake in the London club as well as being the majority owner of Lyon.
The French club’s relegation due to financial struggles had through to have saved Palace’s spot but an appeal saw them reinstated as a Ligue 1 outfit and therefore meant that Palace could not play in Europe’s second competition.
Now, the club have filed an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, according to the BBC.
Palace have requested an annulment of the decision by UEFA’s financial control body and re-admission to the Europa League in place of either Nottingham Forest or Lyon. Forest, who had initially been given a Conference League spot but were moved up at Palace’s expense, are thought to have been campaigning for the punishment to be applied.
The official appeal to CAS comes after co-owner and chairman Steve Parish said they were “hopeful” they could overturn the ruling.
“We are still fighting,” Parish told The Rest Is Football podcast.
“There’s an appeal process, so we go to Cas, and we’re very hopeful. We think we’ve got great legal arguments.
“We don’t think this is the right decision by any means. We know, unequivocally, that John (Textor) didn’t have decisive influence over the club.
“We know we proved that beyond all reasonable doubt because it’s a fact.
“We feel that there are a lot of very genuine mitigating circumstances and more than enough wriggle room to put us in the competition.
“It does look bad. This is the dream, right? This is what keeps football alive. This is why everybody goes, because they think one day they might win a cup and they might qualify for Europe.
“These things can be defining moments for a club and completely change the course of history forever.
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“Hopefully, when we go to CAS we get the right answer.
“We get the written version of (the ruling) with the details, then apparently the appeal is 10 days”
A decision on Palace’s case is expected on or before 11 August, with the Europa League group stage beginning on 24 September.
Rules state that clubs must prove no one person has influence over two clubs by March 1 to be able to enter the following season’s competitions. Clubs therefore often set up blind trusts in order to get around the rules, which is how the likes of Sir Jim Ratcliffe can have shares in Nice and Manchester United but not be in danger of falling foul of UEFA’s regulations.
In their intial appeal to UEFA, Palace argued that Textor did not hold any decisive influence at the club but UEFA did not accept the Premier League club’s defence.
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