Crystal Palace has lost their European battle with UEFA – and this season is playing in the Conference League.
The Eagles were relegated from the Europa League earlier this summer, when UEFA ruled that they had violated their rules for multi-club ownership.
Defending Palace Officaries appealed on Friday against the decision in a debilitating session of 10 hours at the court of arbitration for sport in Lausanne on Friday.
Cas -lawyers had promised to give a verdict by playing on Monday. And they then chose the side with the administrative body, in what will be a devastating blow to the FA Cup winners and their fans and a decision that could cost the palace up to £ 20 million in lost income. It is probably also welcomed in the city area, with the ruling that Nottingham Forest will take the place of Palace.
The Eagles had tried to overthrow their relegation at the expense of Forest of Lyon.
They were dropped in the third level competition after a UEFA panel discovered that the American businessman John Textor, whose Eagles Holdings Company had an interest of 43 percent in the club, was in an influence in Selhurst Park. His company also owned the French outfit Lyon, which qualified for the same competition. Lyon was given priority, with only one MCO club allowed, because they ended up higher in their domestic competition than FA Cup winners Palace.
Textor, who then sold his interest in Palace, was not present during the hearing.
Both Forest and Lyon also had legal representatives at CAS.
Palace argued that although the Textor company had a 43 percent interest in the club, it only offered him 25 percent of the voting rights and that chairman Steve Parish, together with silent partners Josh Harris and David Blitzer, called the shots with their 75 percent. As such, they said, Textor had no influence in Selhurst Park.
They also claimed that double standards were involved, which said that parties in the European Club Association (ECA) were told that those with potential MCO problems could go beyond UEFA's Deadline of 1 March to submit their paperwork.
A wipe was also taken in Forest, where Palace claimed that they did not act to navigate the rules when it seemed as if they were eligible for the Champions League together with Olympiakos, who are also owned by Evangelos Marinakis, until April 29.
Palace said that the only communication they had from UEFA was in an e -mail in the generic address of the club.
However, they were confronted with a tough fight. In June Cas confirmed UEFA's decision to remove the Irish side Drogheda United from the Conference League due to non-compliance with MCO rules.
Drogheda, owned by the same group that manages colleague qualifications Silkeborg as, argued that the deadline of 1 March was not properly communicated by UEFA. In what seemed to be a precedent, however, Cas rejected the claim, together with a further claim of unequal treatment.