While Oliver Glasner’s side have a clear shot at glory, the health of the competition as a whole is up for debate
It is hard to imagine Uefa will be spared the wrath of Selhurst Park when Crystal Palace begin Conference League life there on Thursday night. A red-letter event in the club’s history has been soured by their demotion from the Europa League and the sight of Norway’s cup winners, Fredrikstad, mid-table in the Eliteserien, lining up against Oliver Glasner’s players will hardly lend itself to a sense of glamour.
For all the burning sense of injustice, there is a clear upside for Palace. They will probably never have a better chance of European success if history and raw numbers are measures to go by. Any Premier League club should start as hot favourites to win the continent’s third-tier competition, such is their financial advantage over all of the contenders. That status has been justified in two of its four editions and there is inspiration to be taken from the scenes of joy when West Ham and Chelsea took the trophy home.
There is also a warning sign for the tournament itself. The Conference League was intended to provide smaller and medium-sized nations with a larger and longer dose of European football, notionally offering some of them a shot at going the distance. So the bigger picture did not look especially edifying when West Ham, who had finished 14th in the Premier League, beat Fiorentina in the 2023 final. The alarm bells rang even louder when Chelsea, at best deigning to field second-string sides for most of the competition, strolled to glory with a goal difference of 45-12.
