Palace's demotion puts multi-club ownership under microscope

IT has been a rollercoaster few days for Crystal Palace supporters, who went from the euphoria of a dramatic penalty shootout Community Shield victory over Liverpool at Wembley to the disappointment of seeing their demotion from the Uefa Europa League to the Uefa Conference League confirmed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

- ROWAN CALLAGHAN

The decision to uphold Uefa’s sanction against the FA Cup winners has once again placed football's modern shared ownership structures under the spotlight. European regulations prohibit clubs under shared ownership from competing in the same tournament.

Palace, whose former part-owner John Textor also held a majority stake in French club Lyon, breached those rules after Lyon also qualified for the Europa League.

Textor sold his 43% stake in Palace in June, after the club had already secured Europa League football by winning the FA Cup. However, Uefa assessed ownership structures as of March 1, a deadline Palace missed for submitting a restructuring plan — a case of unfortunate timing.