Steve Parish has suggested that Nottingham Forest are to blame for Crystal Palace’s demotion from the Europa League to the Conference League, and confirmed the FA Cup winners will appeal to the court of arbitration for sport over Uefa’s decision.
European football’s governing body ruled last week that Palace had breached its multiclub ownership rules, with Forest expected to be promoted to the Europa League in their place. It was revealed last month that Forest had written to Uefa to raise concerns that Palace could be in breach of regulations that bar clubs with the same owner from competing in the same competition if an individual or ownership group is considered to have a decisive influence over more than one of those teams.
Uefa deemed that a move by Palace’s biggest shareholder, John Textor, whose company Eagle Football Holdings also owns Lyon – who have also qualified for the Europa League – to sell his stake to the New York Jets owner, Woody Johnson, had come too late despite completion of the deal now being imminent. The Forest owner, Evangelos Marinakis, who also owns the Greek champions Olympiakos, placed his shares into a blind trust to comply with the rules in the event that Forest qualified for the Champions League. Uefa rejected Textor’s attempts to do the same after he missed the 1 March deadline.
Parish, asked by Gary Lineker on The Rest is Football podcast whether Forest had played a part in Palace being demoted, said: “Yes. We were told that and I think it’s been made public. These things seem to be played out in public. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of confidentiality that comes out of certain organisations. But we’re led to believe that that’s the issue – if there wasn’t somebody that wanted to get in as a consequence, then there wouldn’t be a problem.
“People have got to look at themselves. Some people will say it’s fine, some people will say it’s not. I don’t really have control of that. I only have control of the arguments that we put forward to Uefa.”
Forest declined to comment. Parish said he was “very hopeful” of winning the appeal at Cas, which he expects to take place before the end of the month.
“We get the written ruling from last week’s decision with all the details from Uefa and then, apparently, the appeal is 10 days,” he said.
“I think [the Uefa president] Mr Ceferin could resolve this situation, and it would be a very good look if he did, because I think most people think it is right that we are in the competition. The draw for the Conference League is 4 August, so this needs to be wrapped up by the end of July.”
Meanwhile, a group of Liberal Democrat MPs from south London has written to the culture secretary urging her to intervene over Palace’s demotion, as the club’s most influential supporters’ group plans to take its protest to Uefa’s headquarters in Switzerland. Hundreds of supporters marched to Selhurst Park on Tuesday night to voice anger at Uefa’s decision.
A letter was sent to Lisa Nandy on Wednesday by seven Lib Dem MPs including Bobby Dean, whose Carshalton and Wallington constituency contains many Palace supporters, and the leader, Sir Ed Davey, expressing deep concern over Palace’s “disgraceful treatment”. It requested that the secretary of state for culture, media and sport ensure “the decision-making process is reviewed for transparency and fairness” and “the club is given a fair opportunity to appeal or respond to any allegations”.
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The letter says: “As you may be aware, other clubs seem to go through much more protracted disputes with less severe outcomes. Many believe that this process has been opaque and disproportionately punitive. We hope you will take this matter seriously and act to uphold the principles of fairness, accountability, and integrity in sport.”
Dean told the Guardian: “This is heartbreaking for fans. In what should be an unblemished year of celebration for the club, officials totally disconnected from the side’s success on the pitch have issued a highly unusual and severe punishment that raises serious questions about fairness in the governance of English football. We are urging the government to back our appeal to Uefa for a thorough review of this decision. Fans must be at the centre of the game, not treated as an afterthought.”
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Goalkeeper Hennessey retires at age of 38
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Wayne Hennessey, the most-capped goalkeeper in Wales history, has retired at the age of 38 after representing his country in 109 matches. Hennessey made more than 100 league appearances each for Wolves and Crystal Palace, reaching the FA Cup final in 2016 with the latter. He was at Nottingham Forest last season but did not make an appearance.
The Bangor-born player was part of the Wales squad that reached the semi-finals of the Euros in 2016 and appeared at the 2022 World Cup. He last played for Wales in November 2023 in a friendly against Gibraltar. “I have decided to bring my playing career to an end, I look back with gratitude and forward with optimism as I take the next steps on my footballing journey,” Hennessey said. Reuters
The march on Tuesday was led by the Holmesdale Fanatics, who took aim at Uefa with a banner that described it as “morally bankrupt”. The Fanatics have promised to organise another protest at Uefa’s headquarters in Nyon in the coming days.
“We want to go there and put enough pressure on them and make it enough of a public issue that we can affect the decision,” said Fanatics member Mickey Grafton. “In short, the next step is to go to Switzerland. We need to get a delegation out there. We won’t say what we’ve got planned now.”
