Crystal Palace were not the only team affected this summer and Uefa is under pressure to reconsider its complex rules
Uefa is facing pressure to push back its deadline for separating ownership structures after a turbulent summer in which a handful of clubs, including Crystal Palace, were denied access to European competitions due to multi-club ownership rule-breaches.
The Guardian understands a number of smaller sides within multi-club operations will lobby Uefa to put back the 1 March date by which they must demonstrate compliance with the regulations. Clubs are barred from appearing in the same competition if one individual is deemed to have decisive influence over them both; Palace were controversially found to have broken MCO rules because their then-largest shareholder, John Textor, also held a controlling stake in Lyon. Both teams qualified for the Europa League and Palace were ultimately demoted to the Conference League, beginning their campaign on Thursday with a 1-0 victory against Fredrikstad in the playoff first leg.
Any change agreed by Uefa would mean backtracking on last season’s move to bring forward the deadline from 1 June. Palace believe that change was critical to their fate: they qualified for Europe by winning the FA Cup in May and claimed, with that prospect looking distant at the start of March, they had not been placed to meet the cut-off. That argument was rejected by Uefa’s club financial control body, whose decision was upheld on appeal by the court of arbitration for sport.
