The Eagles held on to beat Manchester City 1-0 at Wembley on Saturday to end their 120-year major title drought but now face a huge dilemma due to UEFA regulations that state that no individual can have “control or influence” over more than one club competing in a European competition.
American businessman Textor, owns a 43 per cent stake in Palace and a controlling 88 per cent share of French club Lyon, who would move up to join Palace in the Europa League if Paris Saint-Germain beat Reims in the Coupe de France final on Saturday. This is because the cup winners’ spot in France would then drop a place in the league due to the Ligue 1 champions having already qualified for the Champions League. This means Palace would drop down to the Conference League if UEFA could prove that Textor had a controlling influence in both clubs.
UEFA’s rules state:
“No individual or legal entity may have control or influence over more than one club participating in a UEFA club competition, (including) holding a majority of the shareholders’ voting rights; having the right to appoint or remove a majority of the members of the administrative, management or supervisory body of the club; being a shareholder and alone controlling a majority of the shareholders’ voting rights pursuant to an agreement entered into with other shareholders of the club; or being able to exercise by any means a decisive influence in the decision-making of the club.”
As reported by Standard Sport, Textor only has a 25 per cent voting right in the club, the same as co-owners Steve Parish, Josh Harris and David Blitzer each enjoy. Therefore, the club is not run by Textor, meaning the club could avoid dropping down to the Conference League.
This is unlike Nottingham Forest, where owner Evangelos Marinakis had to place the club in a in a blind trust due to his ownership of both Forest and Olympiacos who will both be in Europe next season.