UEFA ban club from playing in European competition as Crystal Palace await official verdict

UEFA have banned a club from playing in Europe next season as Crystal Palace await a verdict on their own case.

Palace are in danger of a potential breach of multi-club ownership regulations, as their majority shareholder John Textor has a controlling stake in Lyon.

Both clubs have qualified for next season's Europa League, with The Times reporting that Palace attended a UEFA summit to outline their position.

The Eagles argue that American businessman Textor has no say over decisions as he only has 25 per cent of the voting power. UEFA regulations deem that any party with at least 30 per cent of voting power has 'decisive influence' over a club.

The club also say that the two sides have no relationship, are not part of the same ownership group and do not share facilities or information.

A final verdict is yet to be announced on the situation, but Palace would be replaced in the Europa League by Nottingham Forest - who wrote a letter to UEFA outlining their 'concerns' over the matter on Monday.

Meanwhile, a different team has been excluded from European competition next season.

League of Ireland Premier Division side Drogheda United, who had earned entry into the Conference League, have been informed that they will not be permitted to compete.

They are owned by the Trivela Group, who also have a majority stake in Danish Superliga club Silkeborg IF.

Both sides qualified for the Conference League by winning their major domestic cup last season.

But Silkeborg finished seventh in the 2024/25 Danish Superliga, while Drogheda finished ninth out of 10 teams in the Irish top flight.

As a result, Silkeborg have been granted entry into the competition.

The news is an even bigger blow for the Irish side as they currently sit in a much-improved second place during the ongoing 2025 campaign and have only lost three of their 19 games.

Similar cases involving Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea have been cleared by UEFA over the past 12 months, with Drogheda stating that they plan to appeal the verdict to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

A statement reads: "This [verdict] is despite significant efforts by the club to work constructively with UEFA to make necessary ownership and governance changes to allow both to compete over the past several months.

"We are devastated by this potential development and believe it would be both harsh and unfair, given the way brand new rule changes this year have been, in our view, inconsistently communicated and enforced across various clubs.

"We are now appealing the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

"What we can say is this: We are - even at this late hour - fighting to do anything and everything we can to secure our players', supporters' and community's place in Europe.

"We have been in active dialogue with UEFA for months and have put forward a share disposition, trust arrangements, and various other undertakings consistent with recent CFCB precedent, only to have all of those efforts rebuffed."