UEFA officially announced that Crystal Palace and Lyon violated the multi-club ownership rules stipulated in Article 5 of the UEFA Club Match Ordinance. Crystal Palace will be denied the Europa League qualification and relegated to participate in the Europa League. Lyon will participate in next season's Europa League. Nottingham Forest will be reported to be a replacement for the UEFA Europa League match next season.

Official Announcement

The First Committee of the CFCB initiated an investigation process against Crystal Palace and Lyon Olympics because the two clubs may have violated the multi-club ownership rules stipulated in Article 5 of the UEFA Club Rules.

On July 9, 2025, the Appellate Body of the French Financial Control Agency (DNCG) decided not to relegate the Lyon Olympics to the French League Two. Therefore, according to the assessment of all other relevant conditions in the settlement by the UEFA Club Financial Control Agency (CFCB) of UEFA Clubs Financial Control Agency (CFCB) (see the media statement dated 30 June 2025).

The First Committee of the CFCB then continued to evaluate the documents submitted by the Olympics and Crystal Palace in Lyon and concluded that as of 1 March 2025, the two clubs had violated the multi-club ownership standard stipulated in Article 5.01 of the UEFA Club Competition Rules.

Based on this and in accordance with Articles 5.02, 5.03 and 5.04 of the UEFA Club Rules, the First Committee of the CFCB decided:

• Accept the qualification of Lyon Olympics to participate in the 2025/26 UEFA Europa League;

• Reject the qualification of Crystal Palace to participate in the 2025/26 UEFA Europa League, but accept the qualification of Crystal Palace to participate in the 2025/26 UEFA European Association League.

This decision may be appealed to the International Tribunal for Arbitration of Sport (CAS) under Articles 62 and 63 of the UEFA Constitution.

【Background】

Former shareholder of Crystal Palace, John Texter, is also a shareholder of Lyon, and both teams have qualified for the UEFA Cup. In addition, Crystal Palace's Premier League ranking is lower than Lyon's Ligue 1 ranking. According to relevant regulations, Crystal Palace cannot participate in the UEFA Cup.

Since then, Texter decided to sell 45% of Crystal Palace shares for more than 200 million euros to retain Europa League qualification for the team.

On June 24, Ligue 1 official announced that due to financial violations, Ligue 1 seven-time champion Lyon was sentenced to be demoted to Ligue 2. On July 9, Lyon successfully appealed and stayed in Ligue 1. They are allowed to participate in the UEFA next season, according to their previous agreement with UEFA.

Related News: Guardian: Lyon was successfully overthrown and was demoted to the French Ligue 2 penalty. Crystal Palace may be relegated to the European League

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