FOOTBALL – Crystal Palace’s appeal against Uefa’s decision to drop them from the Europa League to the third-tier Conference League was dismissed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport yesterday.
Uefa demoted Palace while allowing Olympique Lyonnais to play in the Europa League as, at the time, the Eagle Football Group were majority owners of Lyon while their chairman John Textor owned a controlling stake in Palace.
Nottingham Forest, who finished seventh in the Premier League last season, will replace Palace in the Europa League.
“After considering the evidence, the panel found that John Textor, founder of Eagle Football Holdings, had shares in CPFC and OL and was a board member with decisive influence over both clubs at the time of Uefa’s assessment date,” the CAS said in a statement.
“The panel also dismissed the argument by CPFC that they received unfair treatment in comparison to Nottingham Forest and OL.”
Palace, who qualified for the Europa League as FA Cup winners, appealed against Uefa’s decision last month.
As both Lyon and Palace had qualified for the Europa League, the French club were allowed to keep their place because they had finished higher in their respective league. Lyon finished sixth in Ligue 1 while Palace were 12th in the Premier League.
&uuid=(email))