According to the Post, Crystal Palace was demoted to the European Cup for violating the multi-club ownership rules, and the club will appeal to the International Court of Arbitration.

Crystal Palace suffered a heavy blow after winning the FA Cup, and UEFA confirmed that they will be down from the second-level European event to the third-level. The reason is that Crystal Palace violated the multi-club ownership regulations. It is reported that the senior officials of Crystal Palace are extremely dissatisfied with the decision and plan to appeal to the International Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS).

CAS has the ability to speed up handling of such cases, but last month they upheld UEFA's penalty decision against Drogheda United, which was kicked out of the UEFA Cup due to the same multi-club ownership issue. The Irish team missed the March 1 deadline and failed to adjust its ownership or management structure to resolve related issues. CAS believes that the March 1 deadline is reasonable and has notified the clubs.

The main owner of Crystal Palace is Hawk Football Holdings, a subsidiary of American businessman John Tuctor. The group also owns French team Lyon, which also qualifies for the Europa League. According to regulations, in the case of multiple club ownership, if two teams are qualified for the same event at the same time, only higher-ranking teams can participate. Lyon ranks 6th in the Ligue 1, while Crystal Palace ranks 12th in the Premier League.

If CAS appeals successfully, Nottingham Forest, which was supposed to participate in the European Cup, will replace Crystal Palace's UEFA Cup position. According to UEFA rules: "Clubs that are not approved to participate will be replaced by clubs ranked second in the top leagues of their association."

According to the Post, Crystal Palace officials went to the Swiss UEFA headquarters to file a complaint to maintain their UEFA qualification. They argue that Tuctor only holds 25% of the voting rights and therefore has no actual influence in Selhurst Park. However, the news that Lyon was demoted to Leicester for financial violations gave them a glimmer of hope. However, Lyon successfully appealed earlier this week, returning to Ligue 1 and qualifying for the UEFA Cup. UEFA statement said that the procedures had been initiated against Crystal Palace and Lyon, citing "there may be a conflict of ownership of multiple clubs". After reviewing the submitted documents, UEFA determined that Crystal Palace did violate relevant regulations: "So, according to the provisions of the UEFA Club Competition Ordinance, the club's financial control agency decided to accept Lyon's participation in the 2025/26 Europa League. Crystal Palace refused to participate in the 2025/26 Europa League and instead accepted it to participate in the 2025/26 Europa League."