Crystal Palace to step up legal fight over Europa League expulsion
Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish has confirmed that the club will take their bid to overturn expulsion from the Europa League to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
European governing body Uefa stripped the FA Cup winners of their spot in next season’s competition last week after ruling that they had broken multi-club ownership (MCO) rules.
The decision has provoked a backlash from Palace, with fans staging a protest march this week and local MPs petitioning Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy to intervene.
Parish, too, has been furious at the perceived injustice and has now declared that the club will use the one legal avenue still at their disposal to fight their case.
“We are still fighting. There’s an appeal process, so we go to CAS [Court of Arbitration for Sport] and we’re very hopeful,” Parish told podcast The Rest is Football.
“We think we’ve got great legal arguments. We don’t think this is the right decision by any means.”
Uefa ruled against Palace because US investor John Textor owns 43 per cent of the club, as well as the majority of fellow Europa League qualifiers Lyon.
The legal arguments Palace will rely on
Under multi-club rules no two teams who share an owner with “decisive influence” can play in the same competition. As the higher ranking side, Lyon were allowed to keep their place and Palace relegated to the Conference League.
“This is a key threshold under Uefa rules and the interpretation of said phrase could make or break the appeal,” lawyer Charlie Edwards told City PM.
“We know unequivocally that John didn’t have decisive influence over the club,” added Parish. “We know we proved that beyond all reasonable doubt because it’s a fact.”
Textor has since agreed to sell his stake to Woody Johnson, the New York Jets owner and former US ambassador to the UK, though there is no guarantee that would satisfy Uefa given it set a deadline of 1 March for resolving multi-club issues.
Nottingham Forest are set to take Palace’s Europa League spot. Owner Evangelos Marinakis, who also owns Olympiacos, placed his shares in a blind trust to avoid MCO sanctions.
Other clubs, such as RB Leipzig and sister club Salzburg, and Manchester City and Girona, have previously satisfied Uefa’s MCO rules by making changes to their hierarchy.
“Palace are also likely to point to Uefa’s inconsistent enforcement of Article 5 [regarding MCO and integrity],” said Edwards, an associate at media and entertainment law firm Simkins LLP.
“If they can show the rule has been applied unevenly across clubs or cases, it could significantly bolster their claim. One way or another, the result is likely to echo far beyond Selhurst Park.”
Fans took part in a march through Crystal Palace in south London on Tuesday evening and the Holmesdale Fanatics group has said it will stage further protests at Uefa HQ in Switzerland.
Seven Lib Dem MPs including leader Ed Davey have written to Nandy to ask that “the decision-making process is reviewed for transparency and fairness”.