Aggrieved Crystal Palace fans have taken to UEFA headquarters in Switzerland to vent out their frustration over the club’s demotion from the Europa League to the Conference League.
Palace had qualified for the Europa League through their stunning FA Cup victory over Manchester City, a historic first major trophy in the club’s history.
However, they will be playing in the third-tier European competition for breaching multi-club ownership rules. The club crucially missed a March 1 deadline to demonstrate that American co-owner John Textor, also a part-owner at Lyon, had no control or influence over more than one club in the same competition.
Uefa’s Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) decided Textor’s interest in both clubs meant only one could enter the Europa League, with Lyon’s higher league position of sixth edging out Palace, who finished the Premier League campaign in 12th.
After hundreds of supporters made their feelings clear in an initial protest outside Selhurst Park, reports from The Independent claim that members of Palace ultras Holmesdale Fanatics – who organised the first march – today travelled to Uefa’s HQ in Nyon, Switzerland to combat the perceived injustice head-on.
Fans of Crystal Palace hold flares outside Selhurst Park stadium as they protest against the UEFA decision to demote the club from Europa league to the Europa conference league. (Photo by Sebastian Frej/Getty Images)
“We travelled to Switzerland to represent all Palace supporters in this fight against a morally unjust decision from Uefa and to demonstrate the public mood demands this ruling is overturned and justice is served,” Holmesdale Fanatics member Mick Grafton told The Independent.
It was revealed that they gained access to the building to hand deliver a letter addressed to Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin, which demanded a reversal of “this moral injustice” and Palace’s reinstatement into the Europa League.
The group also presented Uefa with a suitcase of fake money, which represented “the contradictions between their supposed ‘fundamental values’ of integrity and fairness, and the reality of their business methods and general conduct”, as described in a statement from the fan group.
Following the protest in Nyon, they travelled to the Lausanne headquarters of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to reiterate their desire to have the ruling overturned.
This came less than two hours before CAS confirmed that Palace had lodged an appeal against Uefa, Forest and Lyon regarding the alleged breach of multi-club ownership regulations.
