The news Steve Parish was dreading arrived less than 24 hours after he basked in the glory of watching Crystal Palace win their second trophy in three months. Parish had been confident that the club’s appeal against their demotion from the Europa League would succeed as he discussed their prospects at Wembley Stadium after beating Liverpool in the Community Shield on Sunday.
“I really am, even more after Friday,” the club chair said. “I don’t understand that we cannot be in the competition. I really can’t. But it’s up to the judges to decide. We trust them and that they listened to everything we said so let’s see.”
Confirmation from the court of arbitration for sport that it had upheld the decision made by Uefa’s club financial control body to punish Palace for breaching its multi-club ownership rules has brought Parish and the team’s fans back to earth.
The Cas statement made clear the role of John Textor, the American businessman who last month sold his 43% stake in Palace to the New York Jets owner, Woody Johnson, was decisive. Textor has admitted that seconds after Palace’s victory against Manchester City in the FA Cup final in May that he feared the worst regarding participation in the Europa League, given that he owns Lyon, who also qualified.
The Cas panel – consisting of a Dutch former striker, a Swiss former fencer who competed in the 1984 Olympics, and an Italian professor – backed Uefa’s findings that Textor “was a board member with decisive influence over both clubs at the time of Uefa’s assessment date”. It also dismissed Palace’s argument that they had received unfair treatment compared to Nottingham Forest and Lyon, and said missing the 1 March deadline for Textor to place his shares into a blind trust had been crucial.
Textor has been the target of most Palace fans’ frustration, although several have also taken aim at the Nottingham Forest owner, Evangelos Marinakis. Forest, who are poised to take Palace’s Europa League place, wrote to Uefa a few weeks after the FA Cup final expressing concern that Palace may have contravened multi-club ownership regulations.
Parish suggested last month in an interview with Gary Lineker that their Premier League rivals had played a role in the decision to ban them. “We were told that and I think it’s been made public,” he said. “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’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 on Parish’s remarks at the time.
Palace’s case is believed to have included evidence that only members of the European Club Association were informed Uefa’s 1 March deadline for complying with multi-club rules could be extended until 31 May – a fact that enabled Marinakis to place Forest into a blind trust when it seemed they might qualify for the Champions League along with his Greek club, Olympiakos.
Palace are also understood to have highlighted the burgeoning friendship between Marinakis and Textor. The American denies that had any bearing on his conduct and described as untrue reports he is planning to incorporate his Brazilian club Botafogo into the Greek shipping magnate’s network of clubs.
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Forest sent a legal delegation to the Cas hearing to argue their case and they have been silent since Palace were demoted by Uefa last month. Marinakis has resumed control of shares in the two-time European champions after they finished seventh in the Premier League.
Their supporters can look forward to the Europa League’s league stage while Palace prepare for a Conference League playoff against the losers of the Europa League qualifier between Norway’s Fredrikstad and Midtjylland. The Danish side lead 3-1 going into their home leg on Thursday.
It is estimated demotion will cost Palace up to £20m in lost revenue, given the Conference League’s league stage has two fewer games than the Europa League’s, although Oliver Glasner will fancy his chances of winning a competition that has had two English winners in its first four editions.
The chance for Palace to play in Europe for the first time since a short-lived Intertoto Cup experience in 1998, when they qualified after being the only English team to apply for entry, will be consolation for a club that also missed out in 1991 when they finished third in the First Division. Only the top two went into Europe via league position.
