Crystal Palace have been demoted from the Europa League to the Conference League, but it’s a situation that could well have been avoided had the club simply checked their emails.
Palace secured their spot in Europe’s second competition by beating Manchester City in the FA Cup in May. Success at Wembley earlier this year marked Palace’s first major piece of silverware in their history as Eberechi Eze’s first half strike proved the difference in the capital.
And victory over City saw Palace book their place in the Europa League, a competition won by Tottenham when they beat Manchester United in May. However, Palace have since had their spot in the Europa League handed to Nottingham Forest and the Eagles have been made to settle for the Conference League.
While Palace fans are thrilled at the prospect of their first foray into European football since the 1998 Intertoto Cup, the UEFA sideshow has taken some of the gloss off their FA Cup win over City.
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Forest finished last season seventh, a huge achievement for the Midlands side after their brush with relegation the previous campaign. That secured their spot in the Conference League, but ownership rules infringements has seen Forest gifted a place in the Europa League and Palace’s expense.
Eagles chairman isn't pleased
Palace chairman Steve Parish is understandably unhappy at Palace’s demotion and has speculated that Forest don’t actually want to benefit from the south London side being found to be in breach of UEFA’s multi-club ownership rules.
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“I know Forest are a fantastic club,” Parish told Sky Sports. “They have a black swan event that got them into the European Cup. They won it.
"That enabled them to qualify again and win it again. These things have an incredible effect on football teams.
“You get your one shot. This is our one shot at the Europa League in 164 years. I can’t believe that a football club with that story, with that history, very similar to ours, would really want to be a part of taking this away from us.
“A lot of Forest fans have reached out to me and said they don’t want to get access to the tournament this way. I genuinely feel most right-minded football supporters would think that the right thing is for us to be in the competition.”
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Email hiccup could cost Palace
However, this could have all been avoided had Palace simply regularly checked their emails.
The Athletic reports that Palace missed several emails from UEFA reminding the club of the rules, while football finance writer Kieran Maguire has revealed that the Premier League had circulated details to all club secretaries regarding the change in multi-club ownership as far back as October 2024.
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Palace have appealed the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, with a decision expected to come sooner rather than later.
Topics: Crystal Palace, Europa League, Football, Nottingham Forest, Premier League, FA Cup
Ben McAleer