Cinderella Story of Cinderella Booked its own spot in the 2025/26 Europa League campaign and won their first FA Cup trophy, which could be a sad ending before the start of the new season.
Crystal Palace won the FA Cup in May 2025 and won a place in the Europa League, which puts their supporters into the Seventh Paradise. This is a big deal for clubs that have never been eligible for European competitions in recent seasons.
It is reported that the Palace can be kicked out of the game before the 2025/26 season begins due to ownership of two different clubs in the same game.
Why did the European Union kick out of Crystal Palace from the Europa League?
UEFA has strict regulations on ownership of multiple clubs, and football clubs cannot have people who own or influence multiple teams in the same game. John Textor, who owns the palace 43% also owns French club Lyon, which is unacceptable to UEFA.
Textor and another co-owner David Blitzer attempt to essentially hand over control to the trustees by placing shares in their palace in a “blind trust” so that they do not directly participate. However, since the deadline for ownership changes is expected to be submitted by March 1 of each year, the body does not accept it. Other clubs like Manchester City and Manchester United stood out with their partner clubs last season and escaped this blind trust trick, but they did it on time.
What’s next for Crystal Palace?
Textor has been trying to solve the problem by selling his stake in the palace, but it doesn’t seem that fast enough. If they can’t solve this problem, the palace could be completely banned by Europe, which would be the intuition after the FA Cup victory. This provides an opportunity for Nottingham Forest to sneak into the Europa League if the palace is kicked out. Another twist is that they may not even be part of the conference league, as Blitzer owns a large chunk of Danish club Brondby, so even falling into that game may not be the Hawks’ option.
Crystal Palace will have to keep its fingers crossed to await Ufa’s final verdict, which is likely to happen before July 2025.
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