UEFA has barred a team from competing in Europe next season, while Crystal Palace awaits a decision on their own case.
Palace face a potential infringement of multi-club ownership laws since their principal stakeholder, John Textor, owns a controlling stake in Lyon.
Both clubs have qualified for next season’s Europa League, and according to The Times, Palace attended a UEFA summit to describe their stance.
The Eagles believe that American businessman Textor has no say in decisions because he only has 25% of the voting power. UEFA regulations state that any entity with at least 30% voting power has ‘decisive influence’ over a club.
The club further claims that the two parties have no affiliation, are not members of the same ownership group, and do not exchange facilities or information.
The final ruling on the problem has still to be published, but Palace will be replaced in the Europa League by Nottingham Forest, who wrote to UEFA on Monday to express their ‘concerns’ about the scenario.
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Meanwhile, a separate team has been ruled out of European competition for the following season.
Drogheda United of the League of Ireland Premier Division, who had secured entry into the Conference League, have been notified that they will be unable to compete.
They are owned by the Trivela Group, which also owns the majority of Danish Superliga team Silkeborg IF.
Both teams qualified for the Conference League after winning their major domestic cups last season.
However, Silkeborg finished seventh in the 2024/25 Danish Superliga, while Drogheda finished ninth out of ten teams in Ireland’s premier division.
As a result, Silkeborg has gained entry into the competition.
The news comes as a further setback to the Irish team, which is presently in second place in the ongoing 2025 campaign and has only lost three of its 19 games.
Similar instances involving Manchester City, Manchester United, and Chelsea have been approved by UEFA in the last year, with Drogheda claiming that they want to appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
A statement reads: “This [verdict] is despite extensive efforts by the club to work constructively with UEFA over the last several months to implement required ownership and governance adjustments to allow both to compete.
“We are dismayed by this prospective development and believe it would be both harsh and unfair, given the poor communication and enforcement of brand new rule revisions this year across numerous clubs.
“We are currently appealing the verdict to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
“What we can say is that, even at this late hour, we are working to do everything in our power to preserve the place of our players, supporters, and community in Europe.
“We have been in active dialogue with UEFA for months and have put forward a share disposition, trust arrangements, and various other undertakings consistent with recent CFCB precedent, only to have all of those efforts rebuffed.”
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