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Valloni / News  / LATEST MCO CAS APPEAL RULING CAS MEDIA RELEASE FOOTBALL – UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE 2025/2026 THE COURT OF ARBITRATION FOR SPORT (CAS) DENIES CRYSTAL PALACE APPEAL
11 August 2025

LATEST MCO CAS APPEAL RULING CAS MEDIA RELEASE FOOTBALL – UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE 2025/2026 THE COURT OF ARBITRATION FOR SPORT (CAS) DENIES CRYSTAL PALACE APPEAL

Lausanne, 11 August 2025 – The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dismissed an appeal by Crystal Palace FC (CPFC) against UEFA, Nottingham Forest FC and Olympique Lyonnais (OL) concerning a decision by UEFA to remove CPFC from the UEFA Europa League 2025/2026 due to a breach of UEFA multi club ownership regulations. As a result, CPFC will be admitted to compete in the UEFA Conference League 2025/2026.

The appeal sought to annul the decision by the UEFA Club Financial Control Body on 11 July 2025 which found CPFC and OL non-compliant with multi club ownership regulations. Alongside the annulment of the decision, CPFC requested readmission to the UEFA Europa League with Nottingham Forest or OL’s admission rejected.

An in-person hearing took place at CAS headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland on 8 August 2025. The CAS Panel was composed of Prof. Luigi Fumagalli as President (Italy), Mr Manfred P. Nan (the Netherlands) and Mr Olivier Carrard (Switzerland).

After considering the evidence, the Panel found that John Textor, founder of Eagle Football Holdings, had shares in CPFC and OL and was a Board member with decisive influence over both clubs at the time of UEFA’s assessment date. The Panel also dismissed the argument by CPFC that they received unfair treatment in comparison to Nottingham Forest and OL. The Panel considered that the UEFA Regulations are clear and do not provide flexibility to clubs that are non-compliant on the assessment date, as CPFC claimed.

This was an expedited procedure, with an operative decision rendered two and a half weeks after the appeal, filed on 21 July 2025. Unless Parties request confidentiality, a full Award (with grounds) will be made available on the CAS website in due course.

For further information on UEFA Multi-Club Ownership (MCO) Cases, see previous Posts on our website, and for advice on MCO legal issues email Dr Estelle Ivanova, our in-house expert on the subject, at ivanova@valloni.ch

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