Why Forest shouldn't feel bad about taking Crystal Palace's Europa League place

New York Times

2 days ago

Steve Parish has been talking a lot in the last few days. And he's not been happy.
The Crystal Palace chairman's unhappiness is partly fuelled by an understandable sense of injustice at his club's demotion to the Conference League from the Europa League, after being found in breach of UEFA's multi-club ownership rules.
Advertisement
In one of his interviews, Parish speculated that Nottingham Forest, the club who are set to benefit from this punishment, surely don't actually want to benefit from it.
'I know Forest are a fantastic club,' he 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.'
While there's no reason to doubt that Parish has heard from some magnanimous Forest supporters, who do believe that entry into the higher competition for their side would feel hollow, it's probably fair to say they're in the minority.
And if any of those fans are feeling pangs of guilt, or that they have unfairly benefited from another club's misfortune and will somehow not be able to enjoy a potential Europa League campaign because it hasn't been 'earned'… well, they shouldn't worry about that.
It's tough not to feel enormous sympathy for the Crystal Palace fans, who may have been dreaming of trips to Rome and Porto and booking hotels for the final in Istanbul, and who haven't experienced European football since the Intertoto Cup in 1999. This won't spoil the glorious day when they beat Manchester City and won the FA Cup back in May, but it takes the edge off.
Equally, the Crystal Palace coaching staff and players, who worked hard to achieve the greatest moment in the club's history, but also the greatest moment in most of their careers. Again, this won't spoil that day, but part of the reward has been taken away: it's a little like getting a promotion at work but not the pay rise.
Advertisement
But the more Parish speaks, the less and less sympathy you have for him, the others in charge of the club, and perhaps even Palace as an institution.
One of the reasons Palace are in this mess is that, by Parish's own admission, they missed several emails from UEFA reminding them of the rules. That's pretty laughable, even before you consider that the address they provided to receive crucial updates about rules and regulations was '[e-mail]'. That's the address you give to cranks complaining there's 13 per cent less meat in the pies than last season, or to journalists whose irritating questions you don't actually want to answer. Not for anything, you know, important.
Furthermore, the football finance writer Kieran Maguire reported last week that the Premier League had circulated details to all club secretaries regarding the change in regulations, as far back as October 2024, specifically referencing multi-club ownership considerations.
This email was sent by the Football Association to all Premier League club secretaries in October 2024 advising them of changes to rules relating to UEFA Multi Club ownership rules.
It would be difficult for a Premier Leagueclub to deny they receive emails from the FA. pic.twitter.com/g2GJB22ri8
— Kieran Maguire (@KieranMaguire) July 13, 2025
Of course it 'feels' unfair that the Palace players, coaches and fans will be denied something that they have earned on the pitch. It is unfortunate timing that Palace qualified for Europe in the year that UEFA belatedly decided to enforce their rules more stridently, having also expelled Irish Cup winners Drogheda United for similar reasons.
It is a nonsense that UEFA can say, with a straight face, that it's fine for Red Bull Salzburg and RB Leipzig to play each other but not Lyon and Palace. Equally, had Forest and Olympiacos been in the same competition, it's ludicrous that owner Evangelos Marinakis placing his shares in a 'blind trust' would have convinced anyone that he wasn't in charge of both clubs.
But at the same time, it highlights how easy it was for Palace and Parish to avoid all of this. It's not Forest's problem that they can't keep up with their admin.
It's not the first time that one team has benefited from another being kicked out of a competition. At the most extreme end, Denmark won the European Championship in 1992 after Yugoslavia were expelled from the competition. Clearly, the reason for the disqualification in that case — a devastating civil war — cannot be compared to this situation.
Advertisement
But there have been more comparable examples. In the FA Cup last season, Barnsley beat Horsham in the first round but were subsequently expelled for fielding an ineligible player: Horsham did not sheepishly decline the chance to go through in their place. LAFC weren't among the initial qualifiers for this year's Club World Cup, but gladly took their spot (via a playoff) when Club Leon were barred over multi-club ownership violations.
Going back a little way, to the 1996-97 Premier League, Middlesbrough would have avoided relegation were it not for a three-point penalty imposed for not fulfilling a fixture. Coventry City, the team who survived as a result, presumably did not feel too bad about benefiting.
This is all subject to a prospective appeal from Palace to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which is expected to come at some point soon. If that succeeds and Palace are restored to the higher competition, it would be tricky for Forest to complain too much.
But if things remain as they are, any sense that Forest should feel bad about stepping up as a result of Palace's carelessness is misguided.