Forest ask for clarity over Palace's Europa League place

BBC News

a day ago

Nottingham Forest have asked Uefa for clarity after expressing their concerns over Crystal Palace's Europa League place. The Eagles won the FA Cup to qualify for Europe for the first time in their history, but Uefa must decide if they have breached its multi-club ownership rules. Uefa's final ruling will centre on American businessman John Textor, owner of Eagle Football - which holds a 43% stake in Palace.Eagle Football also owns a 77% stake in French side Lyon, who - like Palace - have qualified for next season's Europa League.Uefa's rules state "no individual or legal entity" can hold a majority of shareholder voting rights at two clubs in the same European tournament.Forest finished seventh in the Premier League, earning a Europa Conference League play-off spot, but stand to gain if Palace are unable to compete in Europe and could be lifted to the Europa League.Sources have told BBC Sport they have issued their reservations to Uefa. Uefa's regulations are in place to prevent collusion between clubs. Palace's argument is their historic FA Cup win - beating Manchester City 1-0 last month - and European qualification was an achievement accomplished entirely on their own merit.The club have insisted they are an entity which operates entirely independently, not within the structures of a multi-club model.Palace also say there has been no employee, backroom staff or coach sharing with Lyon, no dialogue, no collaborative strategy, no combined partnerships, sponsorships or commercial deals and no collective scouting, analysis or software collaborations.Forest have avoided this issue after owner Evangelos Marinakis diluted his control of the club.The Greek businessman also controls Olympiakos, as well as Portuguese side Rio Ave and, at the time, Forest and Olympiakos were both on course to qualify for next season's Champions League. Forest complied with the rules after Uefa changed the date to 1 March for clubs to highlight potential issues in ownership structures as it was becoming unmanageable to go through the checks required from the previous deadline of 1 June. The first and second qualification rounds of the Europa League and Conference League are in July.At that point Palace had not acted despite qualification through the FA Cup being a possibility. BBC Sport contacted Uefa and Palace who declined to comment.