Crystal Palace takes UEFA to court over demotion to third-tier conference league
Palace secured qualification to the second-tier Europa League by winning the FA Cup last season–its first major trophy in 120 years of existence. But UEFA demoted Palace after finding it in breach of multi-club ownership regulations because of its ties to French club Lyon through American businessman John Textor. Textor had a 43 percent stake in Palace and owns Lyon outright. UEFA rules state that clubs can be barred from its competitions if owners have decisive influence over two teams that have qualified. While Textor only had limited decision-making at Palace, UEFA deemed his involvement with Lyon–which qualified for the Europa League–breached multi-club ownership rules. Textor has since agreed to sell his Palace stake to New York Jets owner Woody Johnson.
CAS said Palace's appeal was also against Nottingham Forest which was promoted from the Conference League to the Europa League and Lyon. Palace's appeal asks for either Forest's or Lyon's qualification to the competition be rejected.
The multi-club ownership rules are designed to protect soccer from the integrity risks of owners controlling numerous teams. The models are becoming more commonplace with Manchester City being part of a group of clubs spread across the globe. Palace chairman Steve Parish has described Palace's demotion as a terrible injustice.
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Arab News
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Al Arabiya
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Arab News
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Niemann, Legion XII rule LIV Golf UK by JCB to maintain dominance in 2025
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Legion XIII has now won two consecutive tournaments, and their lead is 46.66 points over Crushers GC. Rahm's team has the opportunity to guarantee itself the top seed in the Team Championship with a good result in Chicago. As for Niemann, he's close to wrapping up the most successful regular season by any player in LIV Golf's young history. Only Rahm or DeChambeau can catch him for the championship now. 'Obviously I want to win the season,' Niemann said. 'I think there is a lot of golf to play yet. Jon, we know how good of a player he is, also Bryson. 'There is not much I can think about other than worry about what I'm doing, how I can improve and get better and play my best golf for the next two weeks. I feel like that's all I'm worrying about it right now.' TEAM SCORES Here are the results and scores for each team after Sunday's Rd. 3 of LIV Golf UK by JCB: 1. LEGION XIII -35 (Rahm 65, Surratt 65, Hatton 70, McKibbin 70; Rd. 3 score: -14) 2. TORQUE GC -27 (Niemann 68, Muñoz 69, Pereira 71, Ortiz 73; Rd. 3 score: -3) 3. STINGER GC -26 (Burmester 66, Oosthuizen 66, Schwartzel 66, Grace 69; Rd. 3 score: -17) T4. FIREBALLS GC -23 (Ballester 65, Garcia 68, Puig 69, Ancer 71; Rd. 3 score: -11) T4. CRUSHERS GC -23 (Lahiri 64, DeChambeau 69, Casey 71, Howell III 71; Rd. 3 score: -9) 6. RIPPER GC -17 (Smith 67, Herbert 70, Leishman 70, Jones 73; Rd. 3 score: -4) T7. CLEEKS GC -14 (Kaymer 67, Bland 68, Meronk 69, Kjettrup 75; Rd. 3 score: -5) T7. HYFLYERS GC -14 (Ogletree 69, Steele 69, Tringale 70, Mickelson 72; Rd. 3 score: -4) 9. SMASH GC -9 (Gooch 66, Kokrak 68, McDowell 70, Koepka 73; Rd. 3 score: -7) 10. RANGEGOATS GC -6 (Watson 65, Uihlein 67, Campbell 70, Wolff 71; Rd. 3 score: -11) 11. 4ACES GC -5 (Reed 66, Varner III 68, Pieters 71, Johnson 75; Rd. 3 score: -4) 12. MAJESTICKS GC -3 (Horsfield 69, Poulter 72, Stenson 72, Westwood 74; Rd. 3 score: +3) 13. IRON HEADS GC +7 (Na 66, Jang 67, Kozuma 69, Lee 74; Rd. 3 score: -8)
